By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The Blanchet Catholic Volleyball team gave the fifth-ranked Dayton Pirates a run for their money in the opening game of Wednesday’s PacWest Conference three-way league meet.
Dayton edged the Cavaliers in the first set, Blanchet returned the favor in the second, the Pirates rallied to take set three and sprinted out to a 7-0 lead in set four. It had the makings for Dayton to close out Blanchet in four sets.
That was. Before the Cavs found another gear. They got back into the game, tied it at seven, and the two squads battled down the stretch before a late Blanchet burst helped the Cavaliers to a 25-20 set win.
“It was a big learning thing for us. Early in the year we were able to find things, then we hit a little bit of a lull, but now we’re on the upswing and that’s what we’ve trying to preach to them and that’s we feel as a coaching staff that they can play at that level,” said Blanchet Head Coach Peter Piexoto. “We’re good enough. If we play defense and we keep the pressure on the other team, we just have to keep playing like that.”
Blanchet kept the pressure on Dayton, trailing the Pirates 10-9 in the fifth set. But that was when Dayton dug deep and found one last gear from their end to close out the match. Staving off the Cavs 25-23, 24-26, 25-17, 20-25, 15-12 for the first of two victories on the night.
It goes back to their biggest thing as a team: To push through and preserve. To battle until the end.
“We just need to push through the whole game. When we do that, we seem to have a really good time and have a lot of fun just playing our ball, and I think that’s the biggest thing,” said Dayton’s Katie Freeborn. “Nothing is guartenned, and we need to play our game.”
The Pirates closed out the three-way league meet with a 25-19, 25-12, 26-24 sweep of rival Amity. Blanchet defeated the Warriors in four sets 25-23, 24-26, 25-17, 25-18.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
