Dayton Ties, Falls To WWVA In Jamboree Lady Cards Can’t Outlast Colfax

DAYTON - The Dayton Bulldogs tested their abilities as a team for the first time last Wednesday against the Walla Walla Valley Academy Knights and came out with smiles despite the lack of a win. The Bulldogs tied the Knights for the first game and lost, 4-0, to the Knights in the second game.

The teams kicked off the jamboree in Dayton with a tie game at 0-0. The Bulldogs hit the field aggressively with strong and quick footwork.

The team was connected and passes seemed to always find the right player as the Bulldogs pushed the Knights and held the ball in the Knights' territory for most of the game.

Despite the pressure and solid teamwork, the Bulldogs didn't take as many shots as they could have and couldn't put the ball in the net. The Knights were quick and aggressive, but couldn't maintain possession of the ball for long enough to take many shots.

Goalkeeper Willie Weppler, stopped shots from the Knights. Several close calls caught by Weppler caused an audible gasp from spectators. Weppler stayed alert even when most of the game was half a field away and took a sudden burst back toward him.

The Bulldogs left the field to take a break between games with visible levity despite the tie.

The second game brought some fielding changes for the Bulldogs and a renewed deter- mination from the Knights.

The Dogs fell to WWVA in the second game, 4-0.

The Bulldogs were wind- ed and didn't have the team strength they ruled with during the first game and couldn't keep the Knights out of Bulldog ter- ritory.

The rearranged Bulldogs left gaps for the Knights to burst through to take shots. The Bulldogs had several throw- ins and passes that went out to nobody, allowing the Knights to break away and score their first goal at 17:45, making the score 1-0, Knights and sending a wave of energy through the refocused team.

The Bulldogs took the ball back, relying heavily on strength, footwork and sev- eral well-placed slidetackles to maintain possession of the ball.

The Knights struck back and scored again at 10:19, bringing the score to 2-0. The score shook the Bulldogs and the Knights took the ball back to score again at 9:33, bring- ing the score to 3-0. The two scores in quick succession seemed to rile the Bulldogs but it wasn't until after the Knights scored again at 7:23, bringing the score to 4-0 when the Bulldogs were able to get serious and fight back.

The Bulldogs held the Knights at four goals, resynchronizing as a team to put up a stronger front for the last few minutes of the game. The final score was 4-0, Knights.

Head coach DJ Frame said he is happy to work with the team and happy that the kids came out, worked hard and did what they were asked to do.

"I'm putting the goals that came in the second game on my shoulders," Frame said.

The Bulldogs' next game will be on Wednesday, Sept. 12, against Waitsburg-Prescott in Prescott.

WAITSBURG - David faced Goliath on Kison Court here Tuesday. Waitsburg- Prescott's first opponent of the 2012 season, the Colfax Bulldogs, featured a line-up of four players at 5-feet 10-inches or taller-including 6-feet and 6-feet 1-inch middle blockers Kindra Kneale and Taylor Larsen.

Sadly for Waitsburg- Prescott Lady Cardinals, it was the Goliaths who won, 25-16, 25-13, 25-14.

The first set was close for the first nine points with Colfax holding the early 5-4 advantage. Then the Bulldogs launched into their first run of the night, 4-0, aided by three WP errors and a Colfax Amanda Huber ace to bring the margin to 10-5.

WP never managed to pull the set closer than to a 4-point margin, 11-7. From there, the Bulldogs put the game away with a 7-2 run powered by Bull- dog Nicole Sheer's two aces and kill. The Cards ended up losing the first set, 25-16.

WP committed seven ser- vice errors in the first set, but set two was a different story. The Cardinals committed only one service error in the second set. Unfortunately, the Cards didn't record a single kill during the set either. A service error to start the game by Colfax's Kneale, and an ace by WP senior Krys- tal Harris, staked the Cardinals to an early 2-0 lead. But Colfax came right back with another of its patented runs. The 8-1 blitz came thanks to three Bulldog kills and five Cardinal errors.

The Cardinals closed it to 8-5 thanks to a nice Enedina Fuentes block and a Rhiannon Chapman ace. Colfax again extended the lead to 13-6. WP closed the gap back to three points with their own run to make it 14-11.

But from there it was once again dominance for the Bull- dogs as the visitors rattled off 11 points to WP's single coun- ter for the rest of the set.

The Cardinals put up their greatest fight in set three hold- ing a lead as late as 10-9. Colfax responded with its greatest out- burst of aces-scoring eight of their final 15 via the serve.

"This is easily the tallest team we will face this year," WP coach Angie Potts said. "Especially that athletic and fluid. We had a lot of youth out there playing against a team that will be one of the best two or three at the state tournament. It was kind of like throwing our youngsters to the lions to start the season."

WP finished with 28 errors on the night to Colfax's 25. The biggest differentials, however, were in kills, Colfax 24, W-P 10, and aces where Colfax out- hit WP by a whopping 21-to-4.

"There were a lot of nerves out there being our first game tonight and a lot of hesitation," said Potts. "We had too many service errors and we started to let our frustration show. We can't do that. When the other team sees your frustration, you make yourself a target."

Potts was pleased with the senior leadership of Krystal Harris and Rhiannon Chapman, whom she noted had "a lot of confidence out there."

"They were big, but their size didn't really hurt us, I thought," said Harris. "They hit deep. We definitely need to pick it up in our serve and serve re- ceiving. Serve receiving sets the tone of the game. If you don't have your serve receive work- ing well you can't set up kills."

WP was led in kills by Samantha Federson with five. Chapman led the team with two aces, and Harris was tops in digs with seven.

The Cardinals' busy sched- ule continues Wednesday ver- sus Rosalia, Thursday against league foe Tri-Cities Prep, and then this Saturday with a home tournament against a host of opponents including neighbor- ing Dayton.