Cougars fall to Thompson Valley in final home match

The Niwot volleyball team seemed well on the way to victory over defending league champions Thompson Valley after an energetic first set win, powered by almost error-free blocking from the Cougars' "Great Wall" of Morgan Daughtery, and Mackenzie and Grace Demmel. But the momentum started to take a turn mid-way through the second set, when Niwot's errors started outpacing their points, and a talented Eagles' squad was able to take advantage. The Cougars went on to drop that set, plus the next two, for their first loss of the season. Afterwards, head coach Daisha Agho pinpointed Niwot's serve receipt as the source of the evening's woes.

"We could not take a ball with our shoulders forward to push it up to [the setter] Angie," Ahgo said. "She was taking 90% of our balls past the 10 foot line, which is ridiculous. We can't run our offense, at that point. We've got wonderful hitters, but if they can't get on the ball, they can't do any good."

That flat offensive performance was borne out in the game statistics against Thompson Valley. Niwot recorded season lows in both kill (33.3) and hitting percentages (.175), and a season high in ball-handling errors (8).

"There was some miscommunication-who's taking the second ball or if we had a ball that we had to pop-up off of defense," Agho said. "We just weren't our normal selves today, so we've got work to do."

But the game wasn't an unmitigated disaster for the Cougars. Niwot also recorded a season high total in blocks against Thompson Valley (16) with Daughtery accounting for half of them. The left-hander also had 13 kills against the Eagles, the most of any player on either team.

The Cougars bounced back on April 10 with a 3-0 win (25-13, 25-14, 25-19) over Mountain View, where some of Niwot's newcomers had a chance to play most of the third set. Freshman Addison Engle recorded two kills on two attempts, and one ace and no errors on seven serve attempts, while her fellow freshman Giselle Greer had two digs and an ace.

"I was really impressed because Giselle [Greer] stepped in and did a great job," Agho said. "And Addy did a great job serving. She's a big kid, and a lot of times, they don't get to play back row, but I told her that I have confidence in you back there, and you're going to be fine."

With the shortened 2021 regular season wrapping up next week, Agho remains optimistic about Niwot's chances in the postseason, as long as the team can get back to playing "Cougar volleyball," she said.

"I want to see them get a little bit better at picking up our pace no matter what team we're playing. We like the fast-paced games-they play much better. They don't have as long to think. They can just naturally flow and do their skills and not have to process the game."