Kylan Gregory vs. Winfield.

by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — A raucous hometown crowd and plenty of momentum from last Saturday’s runner-up championship at Chaparral, the Wellington varsity girls’ volleyball team was looking to score a couple of victories.

The Crusaders lost both matches to Collegiate 25-15, 28-26, before losing the nightcap to Winfield 13-25, 25-14, 25-13.

Wellington is now 7-11.

“We, as a team, know that we should have come away with two wins last night,” said Mandy Ramos, Wellington’s head volleyball coach. “This is a minor setback after the huge improvement we have made this season. This did not show what we are capable of.”

Crusaders win opening set 25-12 against Winfield. pic.twitter.com/PdBwPQwgx2

— Wellington Activities (@WellingtonActiv) September 21, 2022

Ramos continues:

We played Collegiate well, a vast improvement from when we faced them a few weeks ago. Again, if we were the team we were last weekend, we would have beat them. Which is what we were hoping for. We made a few silly errors on our end which ended up costing us the match. We will see them again this weekend at the Cheney tournament and hope to play them to redeem ourselves.

Shiney Hughes vs. Winfield.

The Winfield contest was even harder to take. Wellington had beaten Winfield in the Viking preseason tournament 25-22 and 25-17. In the first match, the Vikings were flummoxed by Wellington’s forecourt especially.

But then near the end of the first set, Wellington let Winfield rattle off five consecutive points to turn a 23-8 laugher into a much-more competitive 23-13 game. Wellington was able to secure the two final two points, moving into game 2.

From that point forward, though, Wellington was outplayed.

Lyndi Barton vs. Winfled.

Ramos states:

We’re unsure if nerves got the better of us, with it being our first home outing. We were SO excited to see so much support, it was amazing. We are so grateful! We played smart against Winfield and executed plays and won almost before Winfield put 10 on the board in the first set. We feel that the girls thought the second set would just be handed to them, but Winfield didn’t give up and came out fighting. We got in our heads and started playing timid and second guessing our abilities. We beat ourselves.

The Wellington student body was in full force for the Crusaders’ first home triangular. Many of the girls were playing varsity ball for the first time on the home court.

The Crusader roster is so young. Of the 12 girls on the varsity unit, there are two freshmen and four soph0mores. There are just two seniors and no juniors on the varsity unit. Lots of time to get better.

Wellington now travels to the Cheney tournament this Saturday.

“This will be a tough tournament, and we need to regroup,” Ramos said. “We know what we need to work on and come together as a team. We are so excited for the rest of our season.”

Wellington fans were in full force.

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