NWAC Crossover Proves Difficult

The Lady Vikes volleyball program headed down to Mount Hood Community College to compete in an NWAC Crossover tournement this past weekend.

BBCC started the weekend off right as they faced off versus the Green River Community College Gators. After dropping the first set by a score of 25-21, the Lady Vikes turned it on taking the next three sets by scores of 25-8, 25-21 and winning the final set in extras by a score of 27-25. Defense seemed to carry the Lady Vikes to vicotry with Emma Lucas, Grace Fedie and Laura Forsgren all collecting double digit digs. Emma Lucas also set a season high in assists with 23 in the Viking victory. Moser commented "We started off the weekend on a high note. With this win against Green River, the offense was really spread out. Everyone was contributing to the win. I think just about everyone had a kill and we had multiple girls with double digit digs."

The Lady Vikes then took on the host in Mount Hood CC for game two of the tourney. This match proved difficult for BBCC as they struggled to get the offense going. Although Emma Lucas and Laura Forsgren collected double digit digs for the second straight game, the Viking offense could not keep up as Mount Hood took three straight sets with scores of 25-12, 25-17 and 25-13.

After a tough go versus the host, the Lady Vikes took on Lane Community College. Unfortunatly the result was similar to the match versus Mount Hood. Lane took three straight sets, but on a positive note the Lady Viking offense seemed to find its stride scoring 19, 14 and 21 points. Dakota Killian led the way with 6 kills and 5 block assists, while Emma Lucas dished out 17 assists and Laura Forsgren added 14 digs.

The final game of the weekend consisted of BBCC battling it out versus Tacoma Community College which was a back and forth battle. Tacoma got the best of BBCC, but the Lady Vikes did not go down with out a fight. Tacoma ultimalty came out on top by a score of 3-1 with two of the victories requiring extra points. Dakota Killian set a season high with 14 kills, and Emma Lucas handing out 26 assists in the loss. Head Coach Alexa Moser had this to say regarding the final match "Tacoma was a very frustrating game. We just felt off. We had a couple girls really step up big for us, Dakota Killian was a force to be reckoned with both offensively and defensively. But it was like we could never pull away. The whole match felt very back and forth, we lost 2 sets very close that we should've pulled through, and then the sets, one, we beat Tacoma handily and then they did the same to us. I think you can just chalk it up to exhaustion and last match of a long weekend because it just wasn't great volleyball."

Although the results were not how the Lady Vikes had hoped, Coach Moser remains positive stating "We've been focusing a lot on ourselves in practices this past week, trying to clean up the unforced errors, but this weekend we struggled. We could come up with every excuse in the book, missing one of our players all weekend, another girl being down the first day of the tournament, so we're having to do line-ups we're not used to, or throwing girls in positions they don't normally play, but in the end, excuses will always be there, opportunities won't be. Games are best 3 out of 5 and if you don't show up for 3 of those opportunities, you find yourselves on the wrong side of the match. We still needed to show up and compete, and we had our moments, but just weren't consistent enough. Volleyball is a game of runs and momentum, but instead of having mountains and valleys in a 25 point set, we need to find a way to just ride the hills, be more consistent."

The Lady Vikes prepare for Wednesday September 20th as they host the Columbia Basin Hawks. This is how they plan to preapre for the conference match - "Practices this week will look very similar to what they have been, focusing on us; offense putting balls away, passing with the game on the line and a lot of situational competing. Playing in mock games with the score of 20-20, being down 22-19 or even being ahead 24-23 and finishing those sets. That way when we get into these situations in games, we know exactly what to do. We have a tough week ahead of us with CBC and Yakima, so practices will be very up tempo, high energy, high stress situations, high expectations so that we're prepared for some good volleyball in those match-ups."

As always, keep up with the Lady Vikings on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as through the NWACSports Network's livestream video platform, where available.