The St. Mary’s Colgan volleyball team went 0-2 in a triangular at the St. Mary’s Colgan Fieldhouse on Tuesday night.
The Panthers fell to Fort Scott 25-21, 17-25 after losing the opener to Chanute, 25-11, 25-9. Chanute came out of the meet 2-0, after defeating Fort Scott, 24-26, 25-21, 25-16.
Caroline Deats had two kills and three assists against Fort Scott. Emalee Patterson had two kills and two blocks and Abbie O’Brien added a kill.
However, Fort Scott’s Mallory Shelton and Kori Allen provided the Tigers with some height in the front row that Colgan had trouble matching-up with. The Panthers tried to mitigate that threat by moving Patterson — one of the team’s taller players — from the middle of the front to the middle of the back. Thus allowing her more time on the floor due to the game’s rotation.
“We’re going to have a height advantage the rest of the season,” head coach Cathy Oplotnik said. “But we also have some girls that are younger and are going to be at a height disadvantage. But they want to play and they are able to move on the court and they’re giving a hundred percent every day.”
The Panthers are sporting four seniors, four juniors and a slew of sophomores and freshmen on their roster. Oplotnik said that seeing some of the larger schools, such as Fort Scott and Chanute early, has a tremendous upside to the future of the program.
“The upperclassmen that we have, they have been doing a great job of getting our younger kids into our system and into the tradition that we have,” she said. “But the younger kids, it’s going to take us time, but they’re going to get there and make our team even better.”
It’s going to give us some bumps and bruises, but it’s also going to give us something to learn from.”
But that’s not to say that the Panthers were totally out of it at times. After struggling in both sets with Chanute, the Panthers came out to a 10-4 lead in the first set against the Tigers. In the second set, the Panthers were able to cut a 12-4 deficit to just 14-11.
Oplotnik said that as the season progresses and the team becomes more experienced, she hopes that will allow the younger Panthers to play with a greater degree of confidence.
“It’s always nice just to get to play,” Oplotnik said. “Both teams are very good and they’re bigger schools than us, so it’s nice to just see that kind of competition. A win would be nice to help with the confidence, but we came out much stronger against Fort Scott and I think that gave us confidence.”
