Lady Vikings still working out kinks after disappointing start to season
<p class="p1">Laura Reich clears the ball over the net on Friday.</p>
<p class="p1">Aspen Runkel sets a ball over the net against Mission on Friday in Charlo. The team would go on to lose the match 3-1.</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Haley Berkram cranks off a serve during Friday’s against Mission.</span></p>
DRUMMOND — The Charlo Lady Vikings volleyball squad didn’t get off to the kind of start to the season they were hoping for over the weekend, falling to Mission 3-1 on Friday at home and getting ousted early from the Drummond Invitational Tournament on Saturday.
DRUMMOND — The Charlo Lady Vikings volleyball squad didn’t get off to the kind of start to the season they were hoping for over the weekend, falling to Mission 3-1 on Friday at home and getting ousted early from the Drummond Invitational Tournament on Saturday.
After losing several key players from a year ago, the Lady Vikings are struggling to adjust as quickly as they would like to.
“We are pretty much a whole new team,” Charlo head coach Sheryl Kain said. “So, our communication and our chemistry is not there yet.”
Charlo opened their night against Mission with a 25-22 loss, but came back in the second game with a 25-23 victory.
However, the still-developing Lady Vikings couldn’t put things together in the next two sets, falling in both (25-19, 25-21).
At the root of Charlo’s problems was a lack of team unity, something that Mission was able to “read” and take advantage of according to Kain.
“[Mission] played really well together,” Kain said. “They were very cohesive and we weren’t. In the long run, that ended up being the deal breaker.”
Simple mental mistakes also plagued the Lady Vikings during the match, especially ones made while serving.
“Our serving was not great and we need to be a lot more focused,” Kain said. “We had a lot of service errors. You do that and you give them free points and they don’t even have to work for it.”
However, the Charlo girls were still able to flash their talents during the game.
Rachel Hoyt put on a solid performance for the Lady Vikings, leading the team in kills (11), digs (10) and blocks (four).
“Rachel was awesome,” Kain said. “She played an excellent game. She worked really hard in the back row and front row, and was hitting really well.”
Meanwhile, Haley Berkram notched team-highs in aces (seven) and assists (13).
Together, the Lady Vikings produced 17 aces, 27 kills, 24 assists, 44 digs and five blocks in the match.
Charlo’s players certainly showed the ability to be a great team in their numbers, but talent hasn’t been the issue.
“Everybody played well individually,” Kain said. “Now we need to get all the individuals to play as a team.”
It was the same story for the Lady Vikings on Saturday in Drummond.
In the morning session of the tournament, the team split its first match with Lincoln (7-12, 12-8), downed Drummond’s JV squad in both sets in the second (12-9, 12-7) and split another pair of games against Seeley in their final match (12-9, 9-11).
This gave Charlo the No. 7 seed headed into the afternoon session of the 16-team tournament, where they were paired with Superior, the No. 10 seed.
Unfortunately for the Lady Vikings, they would have another rough outing, falling to Superior 2-1 (15-11, 12-15, 8-15) and getting eliminated from the tournament.
Kain said she would have preferred a more-typical scoring system, but the shortened games of the tournament were able to provide the team with a valuable lesson.
“You don’t have much time to goof around,” Kain said. “You’ve got to get your scoring done quick and fast and stay serious...That was part of the problem, we weren’t ready to go.”
Berkram had another strong performance, serving six aces and accounting for 19 assists in the tournament to lead the team in both categories.
Hoyt led all Charlo players with 22 kills and tied for the team-lead in blocks with Aspen Runkel at two apiece.
Laura Reich (four aces), Derika Stipe (10 kills) and Jordan Ludeman (16 assists) also performed well in the tournament.
Charlo racked up 12 aces, six blocks, 53 kills and 44 assists in all for the day.
While the team showed some improvement during the visit to Drummond, Kain said they still have to learn to work more efficiently as a whole.
The key to addressing the issue, according to Kain, will be repetition.
“For me, it’s how you do in practice is how you play,’ Kain said. “You just have to keep emphasizing countering and talking, keep going over it and just drill it into them like shooting a free throw.”