Odessa hands Garden City first loss of the season

By Mike Pilosof

Odessa, TX-In their first three matches, Garden City completely outplayed their opponent. But on Friday, the competition level got a little stiffer. And with that, came a major learning curve for Patrick Hiltz's team.

Savannah Marenco and Andrea Spasojevic combined for 25 kills, Siena Decambra tallied 19 assists, and fifth-ranked Odessa handed the Broncbusters their first loss of the season in three sets 16-25, 20-25, 12-25 Friday afternoon at the OC Sports Center.

"It's tough to tell what we need to work on when the biggest problem is our own energy and effort," Hiltz said afterwards.

That energy was a big reason behind the Broncbusters early-season resurgence. But for the most part, there was something off on Friday.

The Wranglers broke open a 6-6 deadlock in the first set with an 8-4 run. And after the teams traded points, Odessa went for the kill. Spasojevic dropped in a perfect attack before Angel Sherman's spike landed out of bounds. Spasojevic then fired a vicious service ace before Marenco added two kills, polishing off a 9-4 spurt that gave the home team the opening stanza.

"We looked like we wanted to be anywhere but on the volleyball court today," Hiltz added.

The Broncbusters showed a little more fight in the second set erasing an early five-point deficit with five straight points, which included a beautiful exchange between Laren Baldowsky and Tauja Durham. But unforced errors plagued the brown and gold all day, and when Victoria Gehret's serve failed to make it over the net, Odessa grabbed the lead back for good. Marenco added another kill, Lyric Love powered one down the middle, and Gwendolyn McCollough slammed a ball inside the boundary for a 16-13 advantage. A pair of violations against Garden City, coupled with Stavroula Papazoglou's soft touch over the net and Emery Judkins spike, had the Wranglers up 2-0.

"We just can't have that sort of energy against anyone we play, let alone really good teams," Hiltz said.

Not much changed in the third.

Odessa used a 9-3 run, punctuated by McCollough's block to make it 19-11. Then, after Durham's tip found a crease in between the Wranglers defense, Odessa put the match away by scoring the final six points.

"We will get this thing figured out," Hiltz said.