Sports
Confidence high as Ladyjacks win three of four
Tyler Ohmann
10/09/2012
The Ladyjacks volleyball team of Dakota College at Bottineau were reinvigorated this past week as they parleyed a busy week into a big confidence boost, scoring three wins in four matches.
“I think we’re developing the confidence to keep pushing, and just being more consistent with our plays,” said sophomore Josie Degagne.
Degagne and the Ladyjacks defended their home court over the weekend, beating Trinity Bible College on Friday night, and defeating MonDak foes Dawson Community College (DCC) and Lake Region State College (LRSC) on Saturday in a triangular match.
Head coach Cory Fehringer said that the turnaround for the Ladyjacks began at the North Dakota State College of Science tournament Sep. 29-30, where DCB won three of four matches against unknown opponents.
“I think going back to the week at the North Dakota College of Science, we played against four teams that we hadn’t competed against prior, going 3-1 there is when we started to make that turn,” Fehringer said. “We lost the first game there, and we had a “come to Jesus” type meeting, and all the girls decided to come together on the same page.”
However, despite renewed confidence, the Ladyjacks did lose a match to open the week with a 3-1 loss to a tough MonDak opponent in Williston State College.
The Ladyjacks snuck away a victory in the first set against the Tetons (their eighth consecutive set victory) as they rallied back and won 25-22.
However, the Tetons size made it difficult for the Ladyjacks and the WSC came away with a 3-1 victory after winning 25-13, 25-17 and 25-13 in the final three sets.
Sophomore Jordyn Sondrol led the team with 14 kills, while Jackie Miller, Leah Parizek and Courtney Hart combined for 17 kills. Ashleigh Aufforth set 28 assists for teammates in the win.
While losing is not the preferred outcome, Fehringer believed that the Ladyjacks showed they could win by taking the set. He hopes the Ladyjacks can keep their confidence as they play the top-tier MonDak opponents moving forward.
“I think our confidence is extremely high, and going back to last year and transitioning to this year, I think there was a lack of confidence in general,” Fehringer said. “So now they are finding confidence, and they are beating the teams they are supposed to beat, so now our expectations have to be raised by one more level, and we have got to get one of those games from the top teams in the MonDak conference.”
The Ladyjacks confidence reached that height after going a perfect 3-0 on a home stand this past Friday and Saturday.
The wins began with a 3-1 victory over the Trinity Bible College Lions. The victory avenged a 3-1 loss to the Lions on Sept. 20.
DCB stepped out strong with 25-16 and 25-22 wins in the first two sets. The Ladyjacks faltered a little in the third set as the Lions recorded a 25-18 win in set three. However, the Ladyjacks came back and finished the match with another 25-22 win in the fourth and final set.
Sondrol again led the way for DCB as she had 20 kills and three blocks in the win. Aufforth again paced the Ladyjacks attack with 29 set-assists. Miller had nine kills in the win, including five in the final set, which helped push DCB to victory.
The winning ways for the Ladyjacks continued on Saturday as they breezed past the DCC Bucaneers and the LRSC Lady Royals in a home triangular match.
The sweeps came convincingly for DCB as they used previous victories over the two teams as confidence boosters.
“I think it does really help to play a team that we beat, because we develop more confidence,” Degagne said. “It will really help when we play harder teams in the future.”
Degagne said the Ladyjacks success stems to a defensive strategy change that was implemented early on in the week.
“Last week we switched up our defense to help in the areas that we weren’t really getting before,” Degagne said. “It’s really helped us the past three games.”
It didn’t hurt that between Degagne and Hart they had 11 kills in the two matches on the day. Other leaders for the Ladyjacks included the usual suspects: Sondrol (25 kills, eight blocks), Aufforth (53 set-assists) and Miller (16 kills and 14 digs).
DCB is now 6-2 in their last eight matches evening their overall record to 10-10.
The next match on the schedule for DCB is at 7 p.m. tomorrow night where they will host NDSCS in a homecoming match.
“I think it gives us a lot of confidence going into that game,” Degagne said about the wins heading into the NDSCS game. “Winning three games in a row now, I guess it’s good to know that we’re not just losing all the time.”
Fehringer too expects the Ladyjacks to use their newly restored confidence as a weapon in Wednesday’s match.
“Our expectations stay the same regardless,” Ferhinrger said about tomorrow’s match. “We know NDSCS is a very good school, but we believe they haven’t gotten our best shot, and we still haven’t played our best volleyball.”
“So all I expect is for us to play our best volleyball up to that point, and we’ll see where it goes from there,” Fehringer added.