It wasn’t pretty at times, but visiting Cassopolis held off Dowagiac 3-1 in a non-league volleyball match Tuesday night.

The Rangers defeated the Chieftains 25-23, 26-24, 27-29 and 25-12.

Both teams struggled to find any offensive rhythm in the match from the outset.

Neither team was able to maintain a run that would allow it to pull away.

But finally, in the fourth set, the Rangers jumped out to a 4-0 lead and was able to keep the Chieftains well behind them.

The lead reached 18-6 at one point and 24-11 before Cassopolis finally put the finishing touches on the victory.

“It is still a lot of mental stuff,” Cassopolis coach Ray Prestly said. “We are still beating ourselves up mentally. If we make a mistake they get down on themselves instead of just going back to basic fundamentals.

“There was some stuff we were trying to work on, but we didn’t get to implement any. But it’s something we can look forward to using in the future.”

Dowagiac coach Sara Lawrence echoed Prestly’s comments about her team’s emotional status.

“They just beat up themselves,” she said. “We actually worked on that all last week and we went into the tournament and played well. Then we turn around today and get back at it. It is very frustrating.

“We need to do some mental work, so we may have a lot of conditioning to do at practice.

 

Dowagiac statistics

Amanda Badner 9 kills, 3 digs, 2 aces

Annie Ennesser 13 kills 4 blocks, 1 ace

Mary Magin 5 kills 1 assist

Gabby Leonard 29 assists, 1 kill, 1 ace

Katie Dantone 1 kill, 7 digs

Caitlyn Napier 4 kills

 

Cassopolis statistics

Kills

Rachelle Williams 16

Logan Lawson 7

Michelle Green 7

Jami Suseland 6

 

Tori Baker 5

Blocks

Green 4

Suseland 3

Williams 3

 

Digs

Baker 43

Kaylyn Forrest 25

Williams 18

Lawson 12

Kortenei Suggs 12

Tyeisha Fuller 11