BBCC Falls to Wenatchee Valley in Straight Sets for Third Consecutive Loss

After back-to-back sweeps, Big Bend Community College hit the road on Wednesday, October 9th, seeking to regain their footing against Wenatchee Valley College. Unfortunately, the Lady Vikes were unable to turn things around, as they struggled to find their rhythm and fell in straight sets for the third consecutive match, with scores of 25-13, 25-19, and 25-13.

Wenatchee Valley controlled the pace throughout the match, keeping BBCC's offense at bay. Despite the team's overall struggles, several players had solid individual performances. Hailey Buehner led the team with 8 kills, while Emma Lucas contributed 16 assists to help guide the offense. Natalie Evers added 6 kills and 2 blocks, while Olivia Louie put in a strong all-around effort, recording 7 kills and 10 digs. Head Coach Alexa Moser had this to say regarding the loss.

"Set 1 we just came out flat. We couldn't get anything going. We're hitting in the negatives offensively, we get one block, you can't compete in games like that let alone expect to win. Set 2 we turned it around and competed for most of the set, but just fell apart at the end. There were a lot of good rallies and better touches in the second set but we couldn't find a way to score. There was a lack of urgency and execution overall. In the third set, we lost Audrey to an injury and had to get creative with a line-up, but in the end we have to remember to just compete. Wenatchee is a very good team and capitalized on our weaker moments."

After a solid start to conference the Lady Vikes have hit a bit of a skid, Moser expressed her frustration by stating.

"I'm just going to sound like a broken record with how frustrating this loss was. To go 3 matches in a row getting swept, there aren't really any other words to describe it. We have a tough region and if we're not going to show up and compete, then these are the type of games we will continue to have. We can keep saying how it wasn't our night, or we were a little off, things weren't going our way, we lost one of our best hitters to an injury, but excuses aren't going to fix anything let alone win games. Teams aren't going to hand us wins in this conference."

Weekly adjustments are part of Moser's game plan as she highlighted how they prepared for the match.

"Defense has been a big focus in practice this week, both in the backrow and our presence at the net. It was nice to see the translation in the backrow, girls were diving everywhere, we averaged 25 digs a set, but at some point we have to find a way to put a ball away or to block the ball in the first place. Defense can only keep you in rallies for so long. And with our third straight match of seeing a team with great outsides and not being able to shut them down at the net is disappointing. We knew they ran a fast offense and we were just too slow to react at the net, we weren't getting touches we should have been."

After dropping to 2-4 in conference, the Lady Vikes host Moser's Alma mater with the Walla Walla Warriors coming to town on Friday October 11th at the Devries Activity Center. As always, keep up with the Vikings on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as through the NWACSports Network's livestream video platform, where available.