It was the second conference match in as many days. Clearly, the Lady Tigers needed to clean up some mistakes that were made in Monday night’s victory over Waldron. And that’s just what Charleston did on Tuesday, as it made short work of Lincoln in three straight sets. The Lady Tigers took care of business Tuesday night in an impressive performance in front of the home fans.
Charleston (6-1, 3-1) entered the week ranked 7th in Arkansas in class 3A by Max Preps. Another indication of the strength of the 3A-1 volleyball conference. The business at hand on Tuesday was to play like the 7th ranked team, and they did. Charleston coach Ryan Rachuy was pleased with his team’s respect for Lincoln and focus on the task at hand. “We cleaned up a lot of issues that we had the night before. Not to take anything away from Waldron, but I don’t think we played quality volleyball last night I think Lincoln is a very improved team. I don’t think they won a game last year, and they have already won one or two this year. They have a few girls over there that can play. They’re good passers and servers. I’m very pleased with the way we played tonight. We needed to get in here and take care of what we needed to; we needed to get some girls into the game tonight and we did that.”
As a sign of maturity, the Lady Tigers played with respect for Lincoln and played well. There was no evidence of the team taking the Lady Wolves for granted. “Lincoln was the first team we ever played when we started volleyball. The first game we ever played, we went up to Lincoln and played. I’ve got a lot of respect for their program, their players, their AD (athletic director), their school, but we came out with a purpose tonight. We focused on what we needed to do so we can win.”
Charleston will be back on the road Thursday to play at West Fork. The theme is to focus on each opponent and not to lose opportunities at the end of the season . “If you try to look ahead you’re going to put yourself in a bad position. So with the senior high girls, they’re really good about let’s take today and let’s take what we are going to do today. If it’s a game, then let’s focus on what we’ve got to do in the game to win. If it’s practice, then let’s focus on what we’ve got to do to get better so that the next time we have a game we can win. I think our girls have that focus.”
The next test for the Lady Tigers’ focus will be on the road at West Fork on Thursday. It is the most important game of the year. I believe Charleston will come out with the same focus they had on Tuesday; the focus to win an important conference game.
