The Cyclones continue to play inconsistent. Ottawa fell Tuesday to Paola in three sets, 25-15, 25-22, 25-17.
“Our biggest problem right now is being able to consistently play our best,” Ottawa coach Kendra Oberzan said. “When we are playing our best we are competing well with some of the top teams in the state, but when we’re not focused or giving the effort required to play our best we struggle. For us to finish this season the way we are capable of finishing, we need to get past the things that are hindering us from playing at our top level.”
It was a topsy-turvy match for the Cyclones, who had several good moments.
“We started the match very well,” Oberzan said. “The girls were moving and talking a lot, which always leads to good things on our side of the net. We were in great control until the midway point of the set, when a couple of things happened that caused our wheels to fall off. Everything on our side changed, our faces dropped along with the rest of us, and we looked like a completely different team.
“We can’t let a couple of plays take us out of the game. We need to be able to fight through any down times and recover quickly. It takes a lot of mental toughness to be able to play at a high level consistently.”
Ottawa recovered to give Paola a fight in the final two sets.
“The second set was much better and we were able to play hard up until the last few points when we stopped being aggressive,” Oberzan said. In the third set, we made a ton of mental errors and gave up eight points on missed serves and serve-receive errors alone which was the difference in the final score.
Ottawa plays today at home against Blue Valley and national power St. James.
Statistical leaders
Alexis Roecker: 17 kills, .333 hitting percentage, 14 digs.
Brianna Yates: 17 assists.
Jillian Prather: 25 digs.
Paige Weidner: 7 kills.
Junior varsity
Paola def. Ottawa 25-21, 25-16.
Freshmen
Paola def. Ottawa 25-12, 25-18.