The Golden Eagle Volleyball team played in the Kansas Wesleyan Tournament September 13th and 14th at Kansas. The Lady Eagles fell to Tabor, Kansas Wesleyan, and The Ozarks, winning their game against Saint Mary with a clean sweep. They closed out the tournament with a 1-3 record.
“We made a lot of progress at the tournament, and I’m excited to see where this team can go,” said Senior Kailey Bain.
Sophomore Audrey Dearien, who finished the tournament with 12 kills, believes her team fought hard, but sees room for improvement.
“We came to the tournament’s first game not prepared to make mistakes,” said Dearien, “but once we accepted and fixed our errors, our game improved.”
Bain, who delivered a team-high of 30 assists at the tournament, said, “We’ve found a way to consistently work hard together.”
Bain acknowledges that their team is continuously improving. “Volleyball requires an immense amount of communication,” said Bain, “In order to be successful, we will have to adjust our side of the court according to how we can defend the offense, as well as find holes in their defense to score points.”
Dearien said, “We have been working a lot on defense, blocking, and digging so we can be prepared to handle whatever other teams will throw at us.”
Bain anticipates her team will do well for the remainder of the season. “We are a young team, but we are very strong,” she said. “We have a good group of girls that work hard and push each other to find ways to improve their skills.”
Dearien said, “We’ve been working hard and pushing each other to do well through high pressure drills so that when we play, we are able to execute the ball quickly.”
Bain said she appreciated the contribution of the freshman players so far this season and is expecting continued efforts.
The team implementing the school’s mission of putting Christ above all is extremely apparent to Bain. “Their love for the Lord shines so brightly through them that I couldn’t imagine a better way to spend my senior year than sharing God’s love and truth to spectators and opponents with these girls on and off the court.”
The team plays their next game on the 19th at 5:30 p.m. against Oklahoma Baptist at Oklahoma, which is the first game in the SAC Tournament this season.