The Garden City Telegram

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Lady Buffs volleyball team drops pair of matches

Published 9/1/2010 in Prep-Garden City

By The Telegram

Garden City High School volleyball coach Bob Schmitz knew his team's season-opening matches on the road at Salina Central would be an eye-opener for some of his newer varsity players.

He just didn't know how much until the Buffs headed home Tuesday night on the heels of two losses to Central (25-22, 25-17) and to Top-10 ranked Class 5A Newton (25-12, 25-14).

"It's kind of what I envisioned of how things might go," Schmitz said. "We've got four returners from last year, but two of those are sophomores, so we've got a number of players with not a lot of varsity experience."

To further complicate the Buffs' effort, senior Haley Harbour missed the season opener as she was serving a one-game suspension for an off-season incident. Harbour did accompany the team on the trip.

In the opening match against Central, Schmitz said he was pleased with the early play of his team, leading by as many as three points when the score got to 17.

"We were playing really well up to that point," Schmitz said. "I think part of our inexperience showed because we didn't have the mindset of staying tough and getting the winning point to maintain our lead."

Schmitz said Central went on two different three-point runs to eventually take the opening game by three points.

"We're discovering that you've got to stay aggressive to the end of a set," Schmitz said. "Central has a very good team, and Newton is a powerful team. Newton covers everything, and they just seemed to put us on our heels. They block and hit very solidly."

Without Harbour in the lineup, Schmitz utilized a number of different lineups to give himself a chance to evaluate his varsity squad.

"I thought our communication got better as the matches went on," he said. "We're just trying to get better with each match and build for the season. I don't think this is the type of team that will have the ups and downs like last year."

Schmitz said his most consistent player in the two matches was junior Kristen Heiman. The 5-11 Heiman recorded 15 kills in the two matches, nine against Central and six against Newton.

"She's our most powerful hitter, and we've got to work on passing to get her better sets," Schmitz said. "I think the whole experience (Tuesday) shows the girls the reasons why we're doing certain drills, running certain plays."

The Buffs (0-2) have little time to get ready for their next matches as they host a quadrangular at 4 p.m. Thursday at The Garden. Holcomb, Great Bend and Liberal round out the teams competing.

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