by Natalie Otto

Over the weekend we played in our first tri-match in Snyder, Texas against Western Texas College and Midland College. Our first match was against Midland College and we put up a fight. We played a long five sets with the scores being (25-18), (22-25), (17-25), (25-18), (17-19). Throughout the game we really got a feel for what worked and what didn't work. The big thing holding us back was that Midland made changes and adapted to what we were doing, but we just struggled with doing the same. As a team we all really wanted this win, and even though in the end it didn't work out in our favor, we were still ready to take on WTC.

Our second and final match was against Western Texas College. We had a lot of momentum going into this game, and were hoping for a big win. We were going strong and ended up winning the first two sets (25-21), (25-22). We kept working hard, but WTC snuck back in when we got comfortable and won the next two to take us to a fifth set (21-25), (25-27). The fifth set was very close, but we fell short in the end (12-15). I can say we learned a lot about ourselves and everyone else from this match. We just need to work on our execution when times get tough and we run out of ideas. We need to learn to be a smarter and more sustainable team, and I think we are on the right track. This weekend was a turning point for our team and I can only see it going up from here.