New Brookings-Harbor High School varsity girls volleyball coach Vanessa Nidiffer and her Lady Bruins had their first home game of the season Tuesday evening in a non-league Hwy. 101 corridor inter-state rivalry contest against the Del Norte Lady Warriors from Crescent City.
The Lady Bruins seemed to have a little case of nerves in the opening match as they struggled early to find their game. As the match played out, the Lady Bruins could not keep up with the net play of the Lady Warriors and put themselves in a situation they could not recover from falling 14-25 in the first set.
In the second set, the Lady Bruins refused to fall behind, and with strong play at the net both offensively and defensively found themselves scrambling in long possessions, finding their game and putting up groups of points on their way to winning the set 25-20.
The Lady Bruins continued the hustle play in the third set, and both teams were determined to break the 1-1 tie. As the Lady Bruins continued to get points off of the hustle plays, both teams were close closing out the third set, but the bounces did not favor the lady Bruins in the final points giving the Lady Warriors a 1-2 set lead.
The Lady Bruins showed power at the net throughout the contest led by junior Ashlyn Schofield #8 who had 11 kills, senior Jordan Crosby #2 and senior Charlie Nolte #1 all who had 5 kills each and senior Skylar Gallagher had 2 blocks at the net. The scrambling defense that kept the long points alive was led by senior Jo Pryor who had 17 digs on the night which junior Cam Crosby #11 turned into 20 assists and 2 aces.
“I think we had a lot of ‘first home game of the season’ nerves to start the match.” coach Nidiffer said after the game. “Once we calmed down a bit, we were able to play in-sync more. Unfortunately we dug ourselves a few big holes that were difficult to get out of, but the team never gave up and played with high energy the whole time. We’ll keep working and be ready for Cascade Christian on Thursday.”
The Lady Bruins will take on Cascade Christian Thursday evening at home in their first league game of the 2021 season.
