By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
DAYTON, Ore.– The Dayton Pirates Volleyball team got their energy going after their tough first set defeat against Salem Academy Tuesday night in PacWest Conference play.
After their slow start in their 19-25, 25-12, 30-28, 25-21 win, the energy got picked up in the second set. The errors they had in the first set were limited moving forward. Their hitters found the gaps, and their defense did what they needed to do.
Dominant second set, rallying from 23-18 down in the third set and coming back from an early 7-1 deficit in the fourth set to complete the victory. It showed that Dayton was able to rebound from their early slow start and were able to show their grit down the stretch.
It was a good start to a big week for the squad that will see the Pirates host Santiam Christian on Thursday as the squad once again will put their undefeated league season, now at 7-0, on the line.
“We knew that they were going to come out with a fight and that they weren’t going to back down. Us dropping that set, it really showed that we need to come out with more energy, and I think we did a really good job with that,” said Dayton’s Gabby Chupp. “It showed that we wanted this game. Us coming out with the energy that we had, we finally got some good hits going, and we kept that energy we had going, and we forwarded that to the points we had after. But I thought we did a good job to keep that momentum going, and I think that’ll carry us for a long time through the season.”
It was just one of those good battles. Power versus Scrappy. It just came down to those finer details that decided it at the end. For Salem Academy, who falls to 5-2 in PacWest Conference play following the defeat, they know now what to improve on between now and when the two teams meet again on October 20 in Salem
“They have good hitters, and we’re kind of small, so across the board we battled well, we just got to make sure we’re doing the little things well. We missed too many serves in a set, that’s part of one of our problems. And then the other, when you have a streak, you got to stay up on the momentum. If we can keep the momentum on our side, I think we can take them,” said Salem Academy Head Coach Kara Copeland.”But it was a great game. They played great. It was just a good battle, I think next time it will be a good game.”
The Crusaders will host rival Blanchet Catholic on Thursday at 7pm.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
