By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The Dayton Volleyball team just found another gear following their opening set defeat to Salem Academy on Monday night.
The Pirates, in that opening 25-23 defeat to the Crusaders, came out sluggish while Salem Academy had the energy. The Crusaders led 5-0 to start, withstood an 11-2 run by Dayton only to battle back to a 23-19 lead going into their opening set win.
“We were ready to play. Our energy was up high, and momentum was going our way. which was awesome, and the confidence was there,” said Salem Academy Head Coach Kara Copeland. “(Dayton’s) a good team, so some of their serves were tough, and we got a few steaks that we couldn’t come out of, and that really got us.”
The Pirates showed way they’re a tough team as they clinched the number-one seed in the PacWest Conference going into the league Championship Game on Saturday. They set the tone early in set’s two and three of their 23-25, 25-10, 25-19, 25-17 victory over the Crusaders. Set two saw them jump out to an 18-4 lead and set three saw Dayton lead 20-9 at one point before Salem Academy slowed down the Pirates pace in the fourth set.
With a big week this week, with Santiam Christian and the League Playoffs still ahead of them, it was a big start to the week in building some momentum into the 3A State Playoffs next week.
“This game really set the tone for our next couple of games that we have. If we can keep this game going into Santiam Christian, I think we’ll have a really good game on Saturday, depending on who we play,” said Dayton’s Gabby Chupp. “We have a really big game on Wednesday, and we need to come out even more for that.”
The Crusaders wrap up regular season play on Wednesday against Blanchet Catholic on the road.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
