Pratt, Kan. – The Pratt Community College Beavers traveled to La Junta, CO over this past weekend to participate in the Otero College Tournament. On Friday, September 16 the team faced Laramie County and Lamar and split the afternoon 1-1 picking up a 3-0 win against Lamar. The team previously faced Lamar on August 29 and lost 3-2.
"We knew Laramie County was tough going into the tournament, but we didn't roll over for them which was a positive for us," said Head Volleyball Coach Brittany Urenda. "Whenever we played Lamar it was more of a revenge type situation and we were high energy, our bench was crazy, the girls had fun and we looked good." I want to say the biggest take away from the weekend is when we play with a vengeance and play to win we really can do some good things. I hope this is the mindset we can take through the second half of the conference schedule."
The next day on Saturday, September 17, the Beavers lost in a five-set thriller against Trinidad State and dropped their second match against host school Otero College 3-0. On Monday, September 19, Pratt traveled to Colby, KS to take on the Trojans of Colby Community College. The Beavers got off to a slow start and was unable to score more then 12 points in a set and lost 3-0.
"In every loss we try to figure out what we can learn from it and I think the biggest thing that we learned was our tip coverage was weak," said Coach Urenda.
The Beavers will host Seward County tonight, September 21 at 6:30 pm in the Beaver Dome. The Saints enter tonight's match 5-0 in conference play while Pratt is still searching for their first conference win. Pratt has remained competitive in all matches played at home and will look to do the same in tonight's match against a tough Saints team.
"We have not really focused on the fact that we are playing Seward and that is important as some of our returners when they hear Seward County get nervous and so we haven't really talked about them," said Coach Urenda. "We do know that they have a good outside and that is someone we are going to have to stop in order to be competitive. It is important for the team to just go out there and play and it shouldn't matter who we play."
Pratt will get a bit of a break from conference opponents as they will travel to Coffeyville, KS to take on the Red Ravens and Ottawa University (JV) in a triangular on Friday, September 23.
"Hopefully we come out 2-0, but it will be important for us to get back on the bus have a long drive and kind of see how we can come out of it as every time we have taken a long road trip we have struggled out of the gate," said Coach Urenda. "Coffeyville has a new coach and will be a lot more competitive then years past and Ottawa has a solid varsity and JV team and will put up a fight."