On Wednesday, the Lady Raiders took on the No. 1 team in the state, LA Pierce College in a conference game. The Lady Raiders were easily defeated in three strait sets: 25-18, 25-15 and 25-14
Interim Coach Aaron Hedland was in command, as Head Coach Steve Burkhart couldn’t make it to the game. Hedland was happy with the team’s effort, but felt they could have done better to start-off each set.
“Every set we got off to a slow start,” said Hedland. “We did a good job of fighting back into it.”
Moorpark’s Meghan Conlan was the play-maker for the Lady Raiders with three spikes and 10 kills totaling 13 points for her team. She felt that her team could have done a better job of executing.
“Each game we have a game plan, and I think we could’ve followed it a little better,” said Conlan. “When we had to get points to slide out, I think we could have done that in a faster manner.”
Sophomore Sierra Joyner had an average night with 13 digs for her team. Freshman Rebecca Sexton capped off her night with 11 assists.
Sophomore and Team Captain Cassidy Simental felt the team did a lot better than the last time they played Pierce, but there was still much to improve.
“I think our defense was fine, for how our blocking was and how we were reading the hitters,” said Simental. “We were making the right adjustments, and that’s all we could do.”
At times, the Raider pavilion got very loud, but for the opposing team. Brahmas players and the handful of fans who traveled to Moorpark to come watch the game made the most noise all night long. All the noise might have thrown off the Lady Raiders a little bit according to Conlan, but not too much.
“It never keeps us from playing our game,” said Conlan. “It never gets in our head.”
According to Hedland, he wants to get the entire team to stick together as a unit for the whole game, even when they’re down and have to play from behind.
“Right now, with the talk we just had, the goal for the rest of the season is to be more of a collective group on the court, and less individuals,” said Hedland. “We want to have people sticking to the same plan, rather than deviating and kind of doing their own thing.”
The Lady Raiders will be in action at home this Friday against Allan Hancock College in their annual “Pink Out” game benefiting breast cancer awareness. The game will start at 7 p.m.
