Snow volleyball team wins twice to keep their playoff hopes alive
Matt Harris
Staff writer
10-27-2016
EPHRAIM—The Snow College Volleyball team broke their fall out of contention by posting two straight wins against Utah State-Eastern and Colorado Northwestern last week.
The Lady Badgers were on an uncharacteristic three-game losing streak after facing the hardest portion of their schedule. They need the turnaround to keep hopes alive for playing in a national tournament.
Snow posted a 3-1 win over USU-E on Nov. 20 before running CNCC out of town in a 3-0 match victory on Saturday.
“After spending the past three weekends on the road, it’s nice to play at home,” Snow College Head Volleyball Coach Jeff Reynolds said. “Maybe we were getting a little road weary. Being at home this weekend allowed us to re-focus on our team goals and to get some much-needed rest. These games this weekend were important for us. I’m extremely pleased with how we went to work this week on fixing the things that needed to be fixed, and regaining a little lost confidence.”
In the first match, a slow start and a 25-17 set loss spelled trouble for the Lady Badgers and their waning confidence, but they rebounded by jumping on top of the Lady Eagles in the following sets and coming away with a victory.
Learning from the prior match about the value of a good start, Snow never let CNCC get anywhere in their next matchup, winning the sets, 25-11, 25-15, and 25-17.
“After starting out slow the past three matches, I think we finally realized how important it is to get off to a good start in a match,” Reynolds said. “Part of our game plan was to start fast, manage our points, control the tempo and maintain the intensity throughout the match. I think we executed that part of the game plan to near perfection.”
The Badgers are staying strong this season thanks to a defense led by sophomore Sydnie Martindale, who after last week, has been named the Scenic West Defensive Player of the Week for the fourth time this season. Martindale leads the conference in digs with 4.84 per set.
The Lady Badgers will play their final season game at home on Saturday against Southern Nevada, a pesky team that upset Snow in their last matchup, 3-1. Snow will then prepare for the SWAC tournament.
