By Mike Maltais
The Liberty Bell High School varsity girls’ volleyball team continues to show improvement in both its play and court sense as evidenced by strong performances at Entiat last Thursday (Sept. 19) and the Bridgeport Tournament Saturday (Sept. 21).
In a give-and-take marathon against the Tigers at Entiat, the Lady Lions took three of five close games that didn’t see a winning margin of more than eight points.
Liberty Bell took game one, 25-21, but surrendered game two, 25-22. Game three ended at 25-19 in favor of the Lions, while game four went to the Tigers, 25-17. The Lady Lions rallied to take game five, 15-10.
“It was nice to come away with that win,” said second-year coach Tim Boonstra.
“Overall we are moving the ball well, so hopefully we can begin to pick up the pace on the ball, get a little bit more aggressive with our attacks,” the coach said.
Saturday’s tournament at Bridgeport included Manson, Lake Roosevelt and Pateros in addition to the Bridgeport Fillies.
“We split our match with Bridgeport, beat Manson, and beat Lake Roosevelt, 2-1, in a very tight match,” Boonstra said.
The wins set Liberty Bell against perennially tough Pateros for the tournament title.
“We got beaten handily by Pateros in the final,” Boonstra said. “We’re taking another shot at them this Saturday, so hopefully we continue to improve this week and show a little better against them next weekend.”
The coach said his team is coming along well this season.
“They’ve gotten a lot better over the last year,” Boonstra said.
At Bridgeport, particularly, “our activity around the net was really getting to a place where I want it to be, where we could be competitive deep into the season,” Boonstra said. “The girls were getting into position well to play cleanly hit balls as well as balls that skiffed off the blockers’ hands. It was encouraging.”
The Lady Lions were scheduled to host Waterville Tuesday (Sept. 24). On Saturday (Sept. 28) Liberty Bell will be on the road against the Nannies at Pateros.
Oroville will be at LBHS Tuesday (Oct. 1) for games starting at 5 p.m.
