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Lady Ravens tackle Temple Junior College
By ROBERT AVERY
Trying to build its case that it deserves a Top-10 national ranking before the first regular season poll is released next week, the San Jacinto College women’s volleyball team swept past Temple Junior College Tuesday night by scores of 25-23, 25-17, 25-22.
The 3-0 win on the road gave head coach Sharon Nelson’s club a pleasing 8-1 season record. So far, it’s a record pollsters won’t be able to ignore when they do vote their Top-20 that will be released Sept. 10.
Ranked 14th in the preseason poll, San Jac’s only blemish so far is to Blinn Junior College in a 3-2 nailbiter over the weekend. Blinn avenged a 3-0 loss to San Jac in the San Jacinto College Tournament last month, but not by much. The contest in the Blinn College Labor Day Classic saw the Lady Bucs win the fifth contest 16-14.
So the Temple contest was the first match since tasting defeat and the Lady Ravens responded like the hungry team it has shown so far.
“They’re (Temple) a fiery little team, so I was expecting a good match. When we were on, we were doing really, really well,” Nelson said Wednesday. “Our key players stepped up.”
Julia Teixeira finished the match with a .542 hitting percentage and Bruna Rocha wasn’t far behind with a .474 percentage.
Arguably her youngest club in the six seasons she’s been at the San Jac helm, Nelson couldn’t be happier with this strong start.
“It’s early and every time you play you find something else you need to fix,” Nelson said. “And with 11 new kids, there’s always going to be that. It’s a refreshing start to what we were potentially anticipating.”
Nelson also praised her libero, Brooke Spossey, the former Dobie High School player for her play not just in Tuesday’s victory but in the Blinn match on Saturday.
“She’s sitting in there and getting digs,” Nelson said.
Speaking of that Blinn match, it was a dogfight from start to finish. The Lady Bucs, ranked fifth in the preseason polls, survived the 25-27, 25-19, 25-14, 20-25, 16-14 contest.
“It was a battle. It was point-for-point (in the fifth game). It was 11-11 and then we went up 13-11. Then we made a mental error and they got in a better rotation and so at the end of the game we had a mismatch in the front row,” Nelson said, dissecting that tight fifth game. “You always want to win, but win, lose or draw that was an amazing match.”
Nelson loved the fight in her squad after losing the third game by 11 points and the home crowd yelling for more.
But now the two rivals go their separate ways for the remainder of the regular season. If they should meet again, it would come at the national tournament in Iowa. But there’s many matches still to be played before the two can begin mapping strategy against each other again.
The 3-0 win on the road gave head coach Sharon Nelson’s club a pleasing 8-1 season record. So far, it’s a record pollsters won’t be able to ignore when they do vote their Top-20 that will be released Sept. 10.
Ranked 14th in the preseason poll, San Jac’s only blemish so far is to Blinn Junior College in a 3-2 nailbiter over the weekend. Blinn avenged a 3-0 loss to San Jac in the San Jacinto College Tournament last month, but not by much. The contest in the Blinn College Labor Day Classic saw the Lady Bucs win the fifth contest 16-14.
So the Temple contest was the first match since tasting defeat and the Lady Ravens responded like the hungry team it has shown so far.
“They’re (Temple) a fiery little team, so I was expecting a good match. When we were on, we were doing really, really well,” Nelson said Wednesday. “Our key players stepped up.”
Julia Teixeira finished the match with a .542 hitting percentage and Bruna Rocha wasn’t far behind with a .474 percentage.
Arguably her youngest club in the six seasons she’s been at the San Jac helm, Nelson couldn’t be happier with this strong start.
“It’s early and every time you play you find something else you need to fix,” Nelson said. “And with 11 new kids, there’s always going to be that. It’s a refreshing start to what we were potentially anticipating.”
Nelson also praised her libero, Brooke Spossey, the former Dobie High School player for her play not just in Tuesday’s victory but in the Blinn match on Saturday.
“She’s sitting in there and getting digs,” Nelson said.
Speaking of that Blinn match, it was a dogfight from start to finish. The Lady Bucs, ranked fifth in the preseason polls, survived the 25-27, 25-19, 25-14, 20-25, 16-14 contest.
“It was a battle. It was point-for-point (in the fifth game). It was 11-11 and then we went up 13-11. Then we made a mental error and they got in a better rotation and so at the end of the game we had a mismatch in the front row,” Nelson said, dissecting that tight fifth game. “You always want to win, but win, lose or draw that was an amazing match.”
Nelson loved the fight in her squad after losing the third game by 11 points and the home crowd yelling for more.
But now the two rivals go their separate ways for the remainder of the regular season. If they should meet again, it would come at the national tournament in Iowa. But there’s many matches still to be played before the two can begin mapping strategy against each other again.
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