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POMEROY––The Lady Buccaneers put together a complete match September 21to counter an earlier loss to the Lady Irish of DeSales and now have a 2-1 record as league play gets underway.

A September 23 trip to Palouse has been rescheduled to October 28 due to Garfield-Palouse and other Whitman County schools being in virtual learning due to covid. Pomeroy visited Colton earlier this week and tonight hosts Tekoa-Rosalia at 6 p.m. The Pea & Lentil tournament in Genesee is scheduled for October 2.

The Lady Pirates dominated DeSales in three sets, holding the Lady Irish to no more than 14 points: 25-12, 25-13, 25-14.

"We had our most complete match of the season yet," said Head Coach Adam Van Vogt. "It is a great sign that in the three matches we've played I think we've built off of our play from the previous match and found ways to improve."

As a team, serving percentage was 92%, keeping the Pirates in a strong offensive position throughout the match. "Several of our girls are making great strides with their spot serving which gives us an advantage from the get-go and it really showed tonight," Van Vogt said. "Jillian Herres and Kendall Dixon in particular were outstanding at the serve line and in placing their serves where they wanted them."

Both Jillian Herres and Chase Caruso were perfect at the service line, Herres hitting 28 of 28 with nine aces, and Caruso eight for eight and two aces. Kendall Dixon made 12 of 13 with four aces, and Keely Maves counted three aces while serving.

The team cut down its unforced errors, Van Vogt said. "We have placed a huge emphasis on not giving the other team free points and I was very happy with how we are gradually cutting down on our unforced errors," he said. "We only had nine hitting errors as a team all night, which is an excellent number and really helped us pull away from DeSales.

"I was pleased with how well we would bounce back from a mistake and limit the runs against us by DeSales," Van Vogt said. "A big key for a winning team is to come right back with a point of our own after giving up a point and not letting a team have a run. We did a great job of putting an error or missed opportunity behind us and we came right back with a positive play when we needed it.

"We are communicating better and better each week and our scrappiness led to come points that we might not have gotten a couple of weeks ago," he said. "Our serve receive was solid too. Our focus for this week as we get ready for league play is to continue to work on serve and serve receive, continue to cut down our unforced errors, and get lower and move our feet even better on defense."

Elizabeth Ruchert was a force at the net with nine kills and three blocks.

Herres made 14 assists, seven digs and three kills.

Caruso contributed 11 digs. Dixon notched three kills and Maves made six digs.