Tough Jump Serves Help Randolph Sail Over Neligh-Oakdale

The Lady Warriors came out strong in the first set, but struggled with Randolph's tough jump serves in the final two sets on Tuesday night.

Randolph chalked up a 3-set victory, 25-18, 25-9 and 25-9.

"I give credit to Randolph for keeping their serves tough and zoning in on our players that were struggling last night," Coach Hannah Hoefer said. "We tried to change up our passers, but we just don't get that tough of serve to practice against, so it made it tough." 

Hoefer said her team "showed a lot of hustle" defensively. 

Hallie Knutson led Neligh-Oakdale with 12 digs, followed by Shelby Keetle with 10.

"We did get caught out of our spots a few times, but I was pleased with the touches and digs we picked up and our coverage on our hitters," she said. "Randolph runs a pretty quick offense and did a good job sending it aggressively to us, which kept us out of system. This is something we will add a little more focus to in practice, so we can eliminate some of the free balls we send our opponents."

Hoefer said she was pleased with the intensity she saw from the Lady Warriors.
  
"We have discussed the intensity on the court since the beginning of the season, and how we need to celebrate for every point scored and how we handle our frustrations," she said. "I feel the girls did very well with it against Randolph. They worked better as a team and celebrated each other's good plays together, but showed that they had each other's backs when we made errors too. That helps a lot with confidence and moving on to the next play."

The 2-4 Lady Warriors will travel to Verdigre on Thursday to take on 3-4 Niobrara/Verdigre. 

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