On Friday and Saturday nights, the Lady ’Cats battled against Whitman and Whitworth College.

The game on Friday did not have the happy ending the team was hoping for. The team suffered a tough loss of 2-3.

Audrey Hyem, ’19, gave some insight of her opinion as to why the ’Cats came up just short in many of the close matches.

“Our team dynamic wasn’t where it needed to be. For our team right now, our team dynamic is really good when were are playing good ball.  When things start to fall apart, we have a tendency to fall apart and stop trusting each other.”

Because the team has not been doing as well as they could be, Hyem also shared what kinds of challenges they are facing, but also looking to improve.

“As of now, our biggest challenge will be solidifying the mental aspect of volleyball. We have the talent and the effort piece. However, we need to do a better job of maintaining composure when things start to slide downhill. We work hard every game to only come so close but can’t quite seem to finish.”

After a tough loss on Friday night, the Lady ’Cats got the win on Saturday against a team that Linfield volleyball has not beaten since 2009.

Hyem was asked what changed from Friday night to Saturday.

“After the tough loss to Whitman, we really came to the game Saturday night ready to play and work as a team because we didn’t want to have the feeling of defeat and disappointment we had after losing to Whitman Saturday night,” she said.

“We knew that we had to bring our best game because Whitworth is the defending NWC champions. The night before Whitworth was upset by Pacific and we thought going into this they would use this as motivation and bring their A-game, so we would have to match that. However, I feel that Whitworth struggled, which was beneficial for us but we have to realize that at the end of the month we will probably have a considerably tougher match.”

“I hope this is the beginning of a stronger, more consistent Linfield Volleyball team,” Hyem said.

One of the team’s captains, Casie Gaza, ’17, gave some input about the games.

“I thought that our strength on Friday was digging balls but I think our weakness was stringing good plans together and that was the difference between Friday and Saturdays game,” Gaza said.

“On Saturday everyone made plays and we strung them together to help build our lead in matches, and it was a really big accomplishment for the team. I think that it will help us in the weeks to come. It just proved to everyone and most of all we proved to ourselves that we can beat any team in this conference if we play our best. And that’s what we hope to do this week,” she said.

The next volleyball game will be at 7 p.m. on Friday at Pacific Lutheran University.