WP Cardinals’ Up And Down Week

WAITSBURG - After last Wednesday's loss against Dayton, fortunes and abili­ties began to turn around for the Cardinals volleyball team after WP beat visiting team Pilot Rock in fivegames Fri­day and won Saturday's WP Invitational in Walla Walla. But a game against Walla Walla Valley Academy Mon­day turned the tide back again - the Knights won three of five matches against WP. In their Friday evening game against Pilot Rock, the Cardinals lost the first two games (20 - 25 and 20 - 25), then won the third (25 -21). In the fourth, Genesis Pearson served up a string of four aces that caught the girls' spirit and marked "a big shift" in the matchup against the Rockets, head coach Jesse Buehler said. "That's when things started to turn around." The Cardinals went on to win that game (25 - 19) and the fifth game (15 -12), knowing all along they were the team to beat, Buehler said. Buehler said perhaps the fact that it was an out-of-the-norm Friday night game or that it was a non-league game got the players off to a slow start. A change in the lineup may have contributed to some initial confusion as well, she said. The coach benched Kayla Huxoll as a setter and put in Krystal Harris who is virtu­ally new to the position. She did okay, but things didn't begin to spark until she put Huxoll back in as a second setter. After the first two losses, it was as though the Cardinals finally got mad, put their col­lective foot down and said "that's enough," the coach said. It's the kind of intensity the team needs on a consis­tent basis because volleyball isn't the kind of sport where you can just coast, she said. "We need to be hitting the ball harder," Buehler said. "In any sport, when your offense is off and just not scoring points, it's hard to get momentum." In Saturday's tournament, WP played five teams and ended up with the best re­cords based on its win-loss percentage. The Cardinals beat Touchet 25-16 and 25-13; DeSales 25-21 and 25-23, and Lacross-Washtucna 25-10 and 25-20. Only against St. John-Endicott did WP lose. It won the first game of that match 25-21, but lost the second 17-25 and last 10-15. Genesis Pearson had 24 kills and 8 blocks, Ronnie Hulce 18 kills and 7 blocks, Kayla Huxoll 35 assists, Krystal Harris 17 assists, Alyssa hafen 11 digs and Iris Batalla 12 digs, 40 of 42 serves with 5 aces.

Yet Buehler was not im­pressed with her team, which came out dragging after Fri­day's nights games. "I'm really distressed about the weekend," she said. "We could have done much better. "We were lucky. We pretty much coasted the whole way through. We lack the understanding of mo­mentum." In Monday's game against WWVA, Buehler saw her girls get off to another slow start.

Again the Cardinals were led by Pearson, who got in 14 kills, but the Knights took the day with top scores in three out of fivematches: 25-20, 25-17, 19-25, 20-25, and 15-12.

"We started really slow again, which is apparently our main problem right now," Buehler said. By the third game, the Cardinals had some momen­tum going, but tough calls by officials in the final game took the wind from their sails, Buehler said.

"Besides starting slow, one of our main problems is not putting the ball away, not hitting hard," Buehler said. "We're a little timid under pressure. We need to start swinging harder." WP plays in Asotin on Thursday.

WP vs Pilot Rock

20-25, 20-25, 25-21, 25-19, 15-12.

Genesis Pearson: 11 kills, 5 blocks, 23/25 serves with 9 aces.

Ronnie Hulce: 7 kills, 3 blocks

Kayla Huxoll: 15 assists

Iris Batalla: 10 digs, 17/17 serves with 4 aces.

WP Invitational

Vs Touchet: 25-16; 25-13

Vs DeSales: 25-21; 25-23

Vs Lacross: 25-10; 25-20

Vs St. John: 25-21; 17-25; 10-15

WP vs WWVA

25-20, 25-17, 19-25, 20-25, 15-12.

Genesis Pearson: 14 kills

Ronnie Hulce: 6 kills

Kayla Huxoll: 22 assists, 20/21 serves with 2 aces

Iris Batalla: 17 digs