Lady Outlaws show grit, work to improve

Published 3:37 pm Tuesday, September 8, 2015

The Enterprise Lady Outlaws volleyball team got in some good practice in pool play at Heppner, Sept. 5, and revealed some areas in need of serious work.

They started off strong against Wallowa but then lost the next three games against No. 1 rated Grant Union, No. 22 rated Imbler and No. 5 rated Weston-McEwen (25-19 and 25-13 game scores).

Put in the consolation bracket, they played No. 35 rated Heppner last — and lost again (25-16 and 25-22).

“Grant Union and Imbler are very tough, disciplined teams who don’t make mistakes,” said Coach LaShawnda Gill. “We just made more mistakes than they did.”

Weston-McEwen was tough, she said, with some tall, good hitters.

As for Heppner, Gill said, “We made a lot of mistakes. Heppner served five or six points in a row against us.”

Our Lady Os ended with a disappointing ranking of 39. At the bottom.

But let’s look beyond the ranking and see what we’ve got to work with.

Given the power of Weston-McEwen and Union Grant, the Lady Os acquitted themselves respectably.

“It’s not like we got blown out of the water,” Gill said.

And, late in the day, against Heppner, they recovered their focus and showed their grit in the close second set.

There were some high points, with Riley Gray doing well blocking at the net and getting in four kills in the first game against Wallowa. Andrea Butterfield did well, too, with 14 kills throughout the day and seven blocks. Jacklyn and Gwen Jensen had 14 setting assists each. Tiffany George had five kills.

We see some good work, some evidence of that happy/scrappy attitude and, overall, something to build on, but the girls are in for some serious serve and receive work.

“We know that’s not our strong suit so we will be doing a lot of that,” Gill said. “We don’t have to be big hitters, but we have to play smarter.”

Just how smart the ladies get in the next few days will be known when they go up against No. 16 ranked Cove on Thursday, Sept. 10, on the home court.