West Side Christian will travel to Wright Christian Academy in Tulsa, Okla., Friday to compete in the Heartland Christian Athletic Association Division 2 High School Volleyball Tournament.
The Lady Warriors went 11-7 on the season. They will be in the same pool as Trinity Christian Academy (Texarkana), Mountain Home Christian Academy and Lakewood Christian School (McAlester, Okla.).
Results from pool play will determine the seeds for the 8-team bracket play, which will be played in the afternoon.
West Side coach Shelby Jones said her team hasn’t played its best down the stretch.
“We’re honestly not playing great but it’s a mental thing,” she said. “It’s not that we’re not capable of playing good. We’re getting in our heads. We just shut down when we get in our heads. We have to figure out how to play from behind and how to stay out of our heads.”
The Lady Warriors advanced to the semifinals of last year’s tournament. Jones was asked if last year’s experience could benefit this year’s team.
“I sure hope so,” she answered. “It’s going to depend on leadership and if we have somebody who will step up and lead us. When we get in our heads, will somebody step up and lead us and not let us crash? I don’t really have that aspect this year where I had it last year.”
The Lady Warriors have struggled in some rotations this season. Jones said communication will be a key and setting up the team’s hitters at the net.
“Defensively, we have to work hard, picking up balls starting with the first pass. We need to do well at serve-receive,” said Jones.
“We push lots of free balls over. We need more attacks. Against a good team, we’re attacking 20-30 times when it should be 50-60 times a game. We have to have way more attacks but it starts with the pass. And, we haven’t been able to execute that well this year.”
West Side Christian has a young roster and despite recent struggles, Jones believes the squad is capable of playing with the better teams. Also, the Lady Warriors will be competing in 2A this season after being in the 3A bracket a year ago.
“We have a realistic chance of taking it this year if we can stay out of our heads and play our game,” she said. “We haven’t played up to our game very many times this year. We played a couple games that we played well. Other than that, we’ve been all over the map as far as playing. If we can level out and play our game the whole time, I think we’ll be fine.
“They come to practice and they put in work. They’re putting in the work in practice. If we can execute it in a game, we’ll be alright.”
West Side’s first game Friday is scheduled for 9 a.m.