REDDING, Calif. – Shasta College's volleyball team dropped two matches Saturday in the Hartnell Classic, falling to Hartnell in three sets 25-21, 25-15, 25-20, and losing to Taft 25-20, 25-21, 25-21.
"Our team as a whole has been improving steadily but we are still making too many unforced errors," Shasta College coach Kelly Brazil said. "Our focus in practice has been to be consistent in all of our skills. While we are seeing tremendous improvement in our young team, it hasn't been enough against tough preseason opponents."
Despite the two losses, which followed a win over Simpson University's JV team, the Knights' Lexi Bradshaw continues to stand out and show promise for a team nearing Golden Valley Conference play.
Bradshaw totaled 27 of the team's 59 kills in the tournament, including a 19-kill performance against Taft. But where she is also making significant strides for the Knights is in serve-receive, Brazil said.
"We have moved Lexi into the primary position for serve-receive in five out of six rotations and that has helped our offense as well."
Bradshaw has a team-leading 164 kills this season.
Against Hartnell, Shasta had a better team hitting percentage (.213 to .189) thanks to less than half as many errors (15 to 7). Katy Kirk had seven kills and Brea Carter had four kills while Regin Loftin dished 16 assists to go with 10 digs for a double-double. Maddison Smedley led the Knights with 14 digs.
In the loss to Taft, Kirk and Jessica Troxclair each tallied five kills to follow Bradshaw's 19. Loftin had 32 assists and nine digs. Skylar Kingsbury racked up a team-leading 25 digs, Bradshaw added 18 digs and Maddison Smedley had 12 digs.