Heritage volleyball sweeps Pittsburg, 3-0

By Juan Cebreiros Correspondent

Going into the Heritage-Pittsburg match, Heritage Patriots head coach Janet Hannigan put a big emphasis on the mental aspect of the game after the team dropped a three-set match to the Freedom Falcons.

“It was hard, we were in our own heads a lot. We’ve been working a lot on the mental part of the game like how to move past errors,” Hannigan said.

Junior Luke Simone added to the struggles the team has had in the mental aspect of the game the team faced earlier in the season.

“At the beginning of the season we would put each other down and recently we have brought it together,” Simone said.

This shift in focus seemed to pay off as the Patriots defeated the Pirates in the opening set 25-14 enroute to a 25-14, 25-13, 25-19 victory.

“Pittsburg is always really super athletic and scrappy to get the ball so we were preparing for that as well as working on ourselves and in our own head,” Hannigan said. Heritage blockers be- gan to take control of the game in the second set. Simone and Luke Roriguez blocked three straight attacks that resulted in Patriot scores. This allowed Heritage to jump out to a 10-3 lead and ultimately take Set 2 by a score of 25-13.

“I think everybody out there is capable and they just kinda lose their heads,” Hannigan said with the third and final set was a back and forth affair between the two teams.

With Heritage leading 15-12, Pittsburg looked to respond with a scoring attack, but the line judge ruled the ball out and Heritage was awarded the point. The Patriots used this momentum to improve their lead to 23-13. Pittsburg then went on a 6-0 run, but it was not enough as the comeback fell short and they dropped the third set, 25-19.

“We can be in the top three in league. I don’t think this team has yet peaked. It’s just a matter of finding more of an offense,” Hannigan said.

The Patriots improve to 13-6 on the season and 3-1 in league play while Pittsburg drops to 9-11 on the season and remain winless in league play with an 0-4 record.