8/29/2007 11:53:00 PM New Streak Lady Riders end 7-year itch against Scottsdale
The Daily Courier/ Jo. L. Keener Ashlee Rowe, right, and Jennifer Hess meet at the net to team up for a block Wednesday night in Prescott. Yavapai downed Scottsdale in four games.
PRESCOTT - Matt Cohen's first chance to make an adjustment certainly worked out well.
The first-year Roughrider volleyball coach watched his team lose in three straight games on Friday at Western. The 'Riders turned around and won their home opener against Scottsdale for their first win over the Artichokes since 2000.
The problem in Yuma was that the team would be competitive until something bad happened. One mistake resulted in a lost game. Wednesday's 3-1 victory was by no means perfect, but the team responded well.
"We still have a lot of work to do but what we did tonight was we fixed what we did wrong Friday." Cohen said. "We didn't give up runs, we minimized our errors -especially our consecutive errors - and we played each point like it was a brand new ball game. That was what we focused on this week."
Yavapai still had lapses with miscommunication or mishits, but it followed most mistakes with a point.
"We just wouldn't get down on ourselves," freshman setter Brittnee Eiler said. "I think we did a lot better job of staying on top of things and not getting frustrated with ourselves or our teammates today."
The Roughriders struggled early getting in sync with their passing, forcing them to play farther from the net. As they got things together towards the net, they took over.
Yavapai took control when it scored seven straight points on the serve on Eiler with the help of strong play from Ashlee Rowe and Jennifer Hess at the net. It rode that run to a 30-21 win.
Things then got a bit sloppy in games two and three.
Yavapai lost a big lead in game two but held on to win 30-26.
In game three it just could not sustain a run to close the door.
Neither team managed to score off the serve as both sides went back and forth. In game three, both teams scored 19 points on the other side's service. Scottsdale eeked out the game 31-29.
Game three was much of the same until late.
With Stacia Wolff serving, Brittany Garcia put away three straight points. The 'Chokes then failed to return four straight Wolff serves before Garcia ended it by reaching over and tapping the last point to the ground.
"I just really wanted it and I think our team really wanted it so we just had a desire and we pushed and finished the game," Wolff said of the 9-0 run to close. "It feels amazing. I'm excited. First college win."
The Roughriders are still putting things together just two games in, but the progress is obvious.
"We still need to work on our passing and our offense a lot," Eiler said. "But from last Friday we've improved so much it's kind of ridiculous."
Yavapai hits the road for 13 matches in two weeks, including two tournaments. Cohen said it will be about finding out who they are against very stiff competition.
"We just need to clean it up a little bit," he said. "We're still getting used to each other. We have three sophomores, four freshmen but they might as well be all freshmen because they're all new to me.
"We're starting seven newcomers every match and this is match two. If we can just keep getting comfortable with each other, keep practicing hard, I think we can be pretty good."
