Mission knocks off Eureka

EUREKA - After finishing undefeated in their home tournament two weeks ago, the Mission Lady Bulldogs (1-1) got a rude awakening, losing to Superior 3-1 in their first game of the season. However, the team bounced back and defeated a tough Eureka team 3-1.

"We worked a lot adjusting on defense before it came over the net," Kendal Anderson said. "I could really see a difference, the girls weren't missing any digs."

Eureka was also the team that knocked Mission out of the divisional tournament last year.

"They've always had big hitters," Anderson said.

The third-year coach said that her team tends to play up for the big games, and let the ones against lower ranked teams slip by them.

Superior certainly played their best against Mission, constantly finding themselves in a hole and fighting back.

"We had a six-to-eight point lead in every game," Anderson said. "Superior just started coming back. We got caught standing up instead of being down and ready to play, and ended up getting burned quite a few times on defense."

The Lady Bulldogs won their first game 14-25, but lost the next two 25-23, 25-22.

"I think the girls were getting frustrated with themselves," Anderson said. "There were a few instances where one of them would make a mistake and then mentally kept beating themselves up over it."

They won the fourth 22-25, but lost the deciding frame 15-12.

"We had a 12-5 lead when we sided out, they ended up serving the next nine points to win," Anderson said. "We got stuck in a rotation where we were having problems and couldn't get an attack on the ball."

Senior Adessa Durglo certainly wasn't a problem spot, collecting 12 kills and two blocks. The Lady Bulldogs turned it around against Eureka on the road. While losing the second game, Mission won the next two for the 3-1 victory, 25-20, 16-25, 25-23 and 25-14. Mackenzie Trudea was a star at libero, racking up 24 digs. Anderson said junior Sydney Allard also helped anchor the back line, and it was her first time on varsity.

The Bulldogs will host Plains at 4 p.m. on Thursday at home.