Jackson Zuber is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Valley Christian for AZPreps365

“We need to end this in three, finish this. It’s Saturday, I know there are other things you want to do.”

Not contempt with their 25-17 wins in the first two sets, that's what Valley Christian coach Lindy Ramsland told her players just before the third set.

The Trojans responded starting off the set with six straight points and winning 25-7 to complete the sweep of Pusch Ridge Christian. 

Freshman Kate Philips said the change in energy going into the third set came from Ramsland encouraging words to lock in and get out early on a strange Saturday game.

“Coach really pushed us to step up and own up to how we played earlier,” said Philips. “We did that and played much more aggressive than we had in the earlier sets.”

The Trojans (9-3) came into the game with the goal of showing off their offensive firepower. Outside hitter sophomore Cara Braun led the way with 14 kills. “It's the hitter's job to be able to put any ball away,” said Braun.  

All three sets showcased the Trojan offense, but in the first twothere were some missed opportunities and issues completing serves.

Senior libero Megan Davies had four aces but was still not satisfied. “In the first set almost every player missed a serve, that's something we’ve been focused on in practice so that can’t happen,” said Davies. 

The Trojans turned that area of the offense around.  After eight service errors in the first set, they only had five in the last two combined. “How we were able to come back from a bad first set, shows how we can adjust as a team,” said  Davies.

The third set was outright dominance. “They had much better energy,” said coach Lindy Ramsland. “They are very sweet girls so sometimes in takes them to kinda see the score to get that competitive energy going.” 

Playing with that level aggressiveness is something  the team has been working on all year. This game, especially the third set, showed what Valley Christian is capable when playing with confidence.

“If we play at a high competitive level we should be any team in our division,” said Ramsland. “It's up to them to realize how good they are.”

The Trojans will get the chance to keep up their aggressive play this upcoming week as they play Paradise Honors on Tuesday and Bourgade Catholic on Friday.