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Pecatonica's volleyball team started slow Saturday in season-opening tourney action on the Monticello hardwood, dropping a pair of first round games to Shullsburg before bouncing back and playing better - as the day's schedule progressed.
Coach Tori Leonard's team dropped a pair of games to the Miners in round one - by scores of 23-25 and 21-25, before splitting with the Darlington Redbirds, by scores of 25-23, 19-25.
Pecatonica then defeated host school, Monticello 25-15, 25-11, before moving into consolation bracket play.
In two matches to close out the day, the Vikings topped the Albany Comets 25-13, 25-19 and finished up with a 25-12, 23-25, 15-13 victory over the Juda Panthers, another team entry from the Six Rivers Conference's' Eastern Division.
In combined statistics for the day at Monticello, Pec's Clara Moen had 22 assists and Sam Mabin added 18. Britt Miller led the team in blocks with 17, Moen had 7 aces and Liz Tisch added 6 aces.
Tisch recorded 68 assists over the course of the day and she also had 4 digs.
Moen also had 4 digs for the Vikings, a team that will host Barneveld's Golden Eagles tonight (Thursday, Sept. 3) at 7 p.m. in Blanchardville.
The Vikings play in the Ithaca Bulldogs' invitational tourney Saturday, Sept. 5 (along with Ithaca, Wauzeka-Steuben, Weston, New Lisbon, and Southwestern) and are back in divisional action Tuesday, Sept. 8 at Juda High School.
Leonard had hoped to see her team improve from the 2014 to 2015 campaign and was enlightened by what transpired Saturday.
"We decided there were three things we wanted to improve upon and we accomplished two of the three much of the time Saturday.
In the first match against Shullsburg, sure, it was disheartening to have a seven point lead and to see it disappears - but I was pleased that we still competed hard. We came back and our confidence grew the rest of the day. One of our goals is to play our style of game and I felt we did that much of the time. We had our share of statistical leaders but I feel all our kids have talent and bring their own attributes to the game. We got good play - across the board and all the girls contributed."
"Saturday's performance was good for the most part - but serve receive is something we always can improve upon - as is our team defense. Those are things we'll keep working on at practice sessions."