By John George
Perham head coach Dan Christenson has said from the first game, consistency is the key. With an inconsistent start, the Jackets got off to a 1-6 start. Since then they have found a groove, winning three of four including a pair of 3-0 conference wins.
Gaining confidence
Christenson saw a difference in his team's mentality during a 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-14) win over Pelican Rapids Tuesday night.
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"We're finally getting some consistency," he said. "We're gaining confidence. We still have things to work on and improve on. But I'm seeing a confidence that they know what needs to be done. They still have to become more consistent and efficient in doing it."
Perham went to sophomore hitter Tiffany Schroeer in game one and she didn't let her team down. She recorded six of her 10 kills in the 25-17 win.
The Jackets got off to a very slow start in game two, but Pelican Rapids wasn't able to pull away. Perham's play at the net kept them in the game.
"We knew they liked going to their freshman (Kendra Coleman), so we slide to her a lot to slow them down," Christenson said. "We were able to get some blocks, get our transitition going and get some kills.
Trailing 16-12 in game two, senior Kayla Speicher rallied her team. She recorded three consecutive kills, served two aces and made a backwards recovery to keep a point alive. Perham led 22-19 after her serve and went on for a 25-20 win.
The Jackets used six aces in game three to pull away for the 3-0 win.
First HOL win
Perham picked up their first Heart O' Lakes conference win last Thursday over Breckenridge, 3-0 (25-19, 25-11, 26-24).
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"That's a big win for us," head coach Dan Christenson said. "We worked all week on cutting down on errors. I believe we had more aces than misses and more kills than hitting errors, so that's a nice step in the right direction for us."
The Jackets got off to a slow start in game one, falling behind 6-1 before getting their game in order. They scored four points behind the serve of Rachel Pfeffer and tied the game at 7-7 on a Kayla Speicher kill.
Tiffany Schroeer had an ace as she scored four points on her service game, giving Perham a 21-15 lead. She later recorded the game winning kill to put Perham up 1-0.
Schroeer continued to carry the Jackets in game two, serving them to a quick 4-1 lead. She controlled the net along with Becca Peloquin and Kayla Speicher to lead Perham to an easy 25-11 game two win.
"Our mid-hitters did a great job," Christenson said. "If they can slow balls down, we have athletic enough back row players to get the ball up and get us into our transitition. They we can get it right back to them for a few kills."
Schroeer led Perham with 10 kills, two solo blocks, two block assists and four aces.
Game three was a nail-bitter from the start. Perham's 7-3 lead early on proved to be the games largest margin as the Cowgirls looked to extend the game.
The largest lead for Breckenridge was at 19-16. From there, the Jackets scored six of the next seven points for a 22-21 lead. After failing on one match point, Schroeer came through win a kill to put the Jackets up 25-24, then served out the game with an ace.
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"I think we let up a bit in the third game," Christenson said. "We need to play more hungry. We need to learn to play under the more pressure situations. Hopefully they learned something tonight about how to close out a game."
Perham will host West Central Area tonight at Prairie Wind Gymnasium. The Knights (7-5, 2-2 HOL) are coming off a 3-1 loss to Barnesville on Tuesday night. The Jackets will then have a full week to prepare for No. 1-AA Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton (9-1, 3-0 HOL) on Sept. 28 in Glyndon.
