GODDARD, Kan.—
Goddard won both of its matches during Tuesday’s home volleyball triangular, and the Lions got some payback in the process. They avenged their only loss of the season by beating Valley Center in three sets and handed the Hornets their first setback of 2010.Goddard coach David Gardner said the Lions went into the rematch focusing on playing better than they did against the Hornets at the Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League Preseason Tournament.
“We needed to improve how we played the first time,” he said. “The first time we had a lot of hitting errors.”
The Lions came out in Game 1 and played well. After falling behind 3-1, they scored seven straight points to take control of the game and went on to win 25-12.
After struggling with unforced errors in the first game, Valley Center responded with a solid Game 2. The Hornets used a 6-0 run capped by an Ashlyn Driskill kill to grab a 14-10 lead. Goddard scored the next two points but couldn’t get any closer as Valley Center prevailed 25-18.
In the deciding game, the Lions jumped out to an early six-point advantage and extended their lead to 9-2 before Valley Center rallied to tie the score at 13. The Hornets scored three of the next four points to take the lead, forcing Gardner to call a timeout.
After the break, Rachel Lee kept Goddard in the game with her play at the net. The sophomore had two key kills and the second one evened the game at 18.
Gardner thought Lee wanted to make amends for some earlier hitting errors.
“I think she was upset by the hitting errors early in the game and that kind of bugged her during the timeout,” Gardner said. “She felt she had to turn it up a notch.”
The Hornets regained the lead at 20-19, but they resorted back to their ways of Game 1 and started committing unforced errors. The Lions scored the game’s final six points to earn the league victory and improve to 9-1 this season.
Gardner feels that a rivalry could be brewing between Goddard and Valley Center since the Lions moved to Division II of the AVCTL.
“That’s probably going to be our main (league) rival just because we’re close and a lot of girls play club with and against each other,” he said.
In the opening match of the triangular, Goddard quickly took care of Great Bend by the score of 25-12, 25-7. Valley Center then defeated the Panthers 25-17, 25-15 before having its nine-game winning streak snapped.
