Lady Raiders Drop Opener To Scottsbluff

Sidney has dominated the Scottsbluff Lady Bearcats in recent years, and the Lady Raiders were hoping to continue that tradition as they traveled to Scottsbluff open their season. Scheduled as a replacement game as Sidney's opener against Sterling, Colo. was postponed due to Colorado's extreme COVID-19 restrictions, new Sidney Head Coach Julie Smith hoped a familiar opponent would be the ticket to early success for the Lady Raiders.

The match started with senior Karly Sylvester banging down her first kill of the year, and Sidney played well enough to open a 14-to-7 lead during the first set. But the Lady Raiders went through a span of hitting errors, and allowed the Lady Bearcats to close the gap at 18-to-16. But Sidney went on a run, powered by service aces by senior Logan Holly, and at 24-to-19 it looked like Sidney had the first set under their belts. But Scottsbluff kept battling, and took advantage of Sidney miscues to eventually tie the match at 24. The teams kept battling, but a service error gave the Lady Bearcats a one point advantage, then a free ball return that landed in the middle of the court while the Lady Raiders were out of position gave the Scottsbluff team the first set, and a massive charge of momentum. Smith made sure the girls turned the page quickly, saying, “The girls remained positive going into set number two, and we addressed the frustration of having control and not finishing the set.”

The second set had the teams trading points throughout, until the Lady Bearcats started pulling away at the end. A five point service run ended the the set in Scottsbluff's favor 25-to-20, while Sidney tried to regroup and eliminate the hitting errors that kept them from scoring. Sidney fell behind midway through the third set, but then tried to pull off a rally like Scottsbluff did in the first set. Sidney battled bak from 24-to-19 to bring the score to 24-to-23 by a big block and kill by Karly Sylvester. But Logan Holly's next serve was long, and the Lady Raiders dropped the set 25-to-23, ending the match 3-to-0 in Scottsbluff's favor.

Smith said, “Overall, we had way too many unforced errors, both hitting and serving. We're going to continue to talk about controlling what you can control and being able to adjust and place the ball, depending upon the situation.”

For Sidney, Logan Holly had 10 kills in the match while Karly Sylvester had nine. The Lady Raiders had eight service aces to Lady Bearcat's one.