Preseason play continued for head coach Vanessa Nidiffer and the Bruin girls varsity volleyball team hosting the second part of the Hwy. 101 rivalry with the Gold Beach Lady Panthers making the trip down the coast Thursday evening.
In the opening set, the Bruin girls and the Lady Panthers traded points, keeping the score close early. Hard fought rallies kept the teams trading the lead at 16-17 before the Bruin girls put together a little run to take a 19-17 lead late in the set. But the Lady Panthers would rally late, tie the score before going on to take the 24-26 win.
The two teams picked up where they left off in the first set, trading blows early, exchanging points to an early 10-10 tie. The Bruin girls would put together 9 points to take a 19-15 lead midway through the set. But again the 4 point lead would not be enough as the Lady Panthers battled back with tough defense capitalizing on Bruin girls mistakes to a 23-25 win in the second set.
With the confidence of two comeback rallies behind them, the Lady Panthers took control of the third set early, jumping out to a 6-10 lead and continued the pressure throughout the set, taking a commanding 11-20 lead before closing out the match with an 11-25 win and the match in 3 straight sets.
“That was a tough loss to Gold Beach.” coach Nidiffer said after the game. “I really thought we had the momentum at the end of both sets 1 and 2 to capitalize and finish with the win, but Gold Beach played well and we let it go with too many mental mistakes. We’ll get another chance to play them next week!”
