Delta women’s volleyball lost its last conference game ending its undefeated streak to American River City College (also known as ARC) 3-1, on Nov. 14.
The Mustangs felt the pressure of the undefeated streak as they went toe-to-toe with ARC.
Sophomore Kiyah Irby recovering the ball after American River City blocked the Mustangs hit.
“Being undefeated is a really hard thing. We know the girls are capable of putting that fight forward to finish and finish with a win. But we know it’s hard to do that consistently,” said Assistant Head Coach Kristie Plateau.
With many used timeouts for Delta, each time out of the huddle the girls came out more energetic.
“We all just look at each other and just lock in. We come out of the time outs locked in ready to perform better,” said freshman Kyra Saiers.
The Mustangs battled it out for four sets, and in the end, came up short, but that has not stopped them from learning from this game and taking the lessons into playoffs.
“The biggest lesson is the need to constantly fight for every single point during every single set. I think that sometimes we have a tendency to become complacent and just have the expectation that we’re going to win. Taking this game (sic) and moving forward and impressing upon the team that every single set and point matters, there’s no backing off,“ said Plateau.
Another lesson from the loss was for the Mustangs to take accountability of their errors and fix them to help the team overall to win the game.
“Also doing it for the team,” said sophomore Bella Cormack, “Like making sure it’s not just ‘oh I’m doing bad,’ but (sic) it’s ‘I’m doing bad and it’s hurting my teammates and what we’re doing.’”
The Mustangs also are continuing to work on communication and staying together as a team to defeat their opponents in the regionals.
“We are excited about continuing to face some tough competition, and growing and getting better. And having fun doing it at the same time,” said Plateau about the Mustangs’ motivation going into the regional games.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, the Mustangs used their lessons learned to win against Modesto 3-1 on Nov. 21 and a complete shutout against Solano 3-0 on Nov. 25.