The Pike Liberal Arts Volleyball team played on back-to-back days Monday afternoon and Tuesday evening, and finished the two days with a 1-2 record.

On Monday afternoon the Patriots defeated Crenshaw in three straight matches 25-13 to win that game three sets to none. The Patriots followed that performance with a tri-match on Tuesday afternoon against Eastwood and Evangel. Both matches ended in a loss for the Patriots. Against Evangel the Patriots fell 20-25 and 23-25. They followed that up with a loss to Eastwood 10-25 and 12-25.

“Things have started out pretty good so far,” said Patriot head coach Kellen Shirley. “It’s going to take our varsity to get into some game situations and playing together to really get successful but we are looking pretty good.”

In their first match against Evangel the Patriots racked up eight kills, 11 aces, one block and their setter finished with four assists.

In their match with Eastwood, the Patriots finished with five kills, four aces, they did not pick up a block and their setter once again finished with four assists.

“Before we started playing we made some simple errors and mistakes I have been keeping all the stats for the girls and after adding them up there are too many errors,” Shirley said. “Yesterday (Monday) when we played Crenshaw it was like all of those errors disappeared. We made a lot of plays and worked really hard together.”

In their first away game of the season the success didn’t translate to the court against their tri-match with Evangel and Eastwood.

“It was kind of a struggle, it was our first away game everybody is always nervous,” Shirley said. “We played two games instead of just one. There were few things that were just a little bit different. I think that it was a struggle for them.”

Shirley hopes that what she sees in practice will further translate to matches and that they can have a successful season in 2015.

“I really challenge the girls in practice to play like you’re in a game situation,” Shirley said. “We need to work harder and try not to make so many errors. We have had great practices and that definitely played a part in how well we played against Crenshaw.”