Bulldogs Dominate Valley Rivalry

DAYTON - The eight-mile trip home must have seemed like an eternity for the Cardinals volleyball team Tuesday night after they lost in three games against the Bulldogs. It was WP's sec­ond

loss of the season against their cross-valley rivals.

Despite a sizeable Waits­burg crowd that showed up to rally its players about as hard and loud as their Dayton counterparts, the Cardinals lost 22-25, 19-25 and 19-25.

"I had a good feeling go­ing into it, and I was happy with the first game," Cardi­nals head coach Jesse Bue­hler said, pointing to a strong comeback in the first game despite the ultimate outcome.

"But the other two games were typical for us," she said. "We were unable to recover mentally after the first few points went against us. We had lots of unforced and un­timely errors." Dayton's head coach Shannon Turner had been more cautious going into Tuesday night's game, which she felt would be tough.

"They're one of our big­gest rivals," she said after the game. "We couldn't take anything for granted. The (Dayton) girls really pulled it off. They did everything asked them to do tonight." Turner said it was the most consistent her Bulldogs played all season. Sticking to very basic fallback setups and to the discipline of their positions on the court, Dayton was able to let WP "make the errors," Turner said. The Cardinals seemed to be plagued by miscues, poor communication and poor serving. Where the Bulldogs seemed to hold their ground, the WP team seemed scat­tered and tentative. "We barely served two in a row," Buehler said. "We gave away a lot of energy and momentum - we struggled with that all night."

In the first game, WP fell behind by 10 points after a series of eight unanswered Bulldogs scores, but from 21-11, the Cardinals came back to within 2 points at 24-22 before WP committed a net error in an attempt to save a high out-of-bounds flyball. During the second game, Dayton pulled ahead around the 14-point mark and never looked back, ending the score at 25-18 despite strong individual performances from such WP players as Iris Batalla and Genesis Pearson. The third game began poorly for the Cardinals, but several aces pulled them ahead only to fall behind on poor serves and missed digs. The WP team never bridged a consistent 5-point deficitbe­fore losing the game 25-19. Dayton, now 4-3 for the season, plays Asotin Thurs­day,

providing the Bulldogs a chance to get even with a team to whom they lost by two points in the fifth game earlier this fall. WP, now 2-5, plays Asotin on Tuesday.

WP vs Dayton

22-25, 18-25 and 19-25

WP leaders

Genesis Pearson: 8 kills, 6 digs

Ronnie Hulce: 7 kills

Megan Withers: 4 kills, 6 digs

Kayla Huxoll: 15 assists, 6 digs

Krystal Harris: 8 digs

Iris Batalla: 7 digs, 12/13 serving with 1 ace

Dayton leaders

Kayla Turner: 16/16 serving with 7 aces, 9 kills, 6 assists and 6 digs

Nicole Lambert: 10 digs

Darci Hall: 13 assists

Amanda Melton: 6 kills, 3 blocks

McKayla Bickelhaupt: 10/10 serving, 5 kills and 7 digs

Sarah Mascall: 13/13 serving

Shelby Smith: 12/13 serving, 4 kills