Red Land and Cedar Cliff are sitting in similar seats. Both are recovering from big losses from last year and both are trying to run their offenses with setters new to the varsity level. Tuesday night the host Colts put their game together quicker and defeated their sister school 3-0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-13).
Turning point: Red Land seemingly had control of Game 1 with an 18-14 lead, but the Patriots suffered six straight unforced errors to give the Colts a lead they never shook. Coach Matt Marshall, in his first coaching his alma mater, said that was too much for his young team to take. “It really got our guys down and they struggled to get back in it,” Marshall said.
What this means: For the Colts, it means they won’t have a donut in the win column for a second straight season. They went 0-11 overall and it was evident after the match how important that W was. As players jumped around and celebrated with their boisterous fans, coach Gary Frutiger was collecting handshakes and high-fives. “The kids have worked hard,” he said. “It feels real nice to get off that [zero].”
By the numbers: Cedar Cliff junior outside hitter Brian Atwood led all hitters with seven kills. Christian Robles, Ellis Wazeter and Zach Bygall added three kills and Ethan Wilson recorded three blocks. For Red Land, Morgan Harman and Jake Radic each had four kills.
Rookie setters: Cedar Cliff’s Robles got the better end of this deal. He finished with 14 assists against nine for Devin Brown.
They said it: “I think considering we have one guy on the team with varsity experience and I am starting two freshmen, we didn’t come into the season with expectations of blowing anyone out of the water. What we did come into the season with was the expectation at the very least was to outwork some teams and play scrappy defense and find a way to get Morgan the ball and we didn’t do that at all tonight.” — Red Land coach Matt Marshall
“We have as many inexperienced players as Red Land did, ours are stepping it up more. We aren’t deep though. We’re standing at six players now. We’re recruiting, and actually two players signed up to play tonight.” — Cedar Cliff coach Gary Frutiger