Lady Raiders scrimmage Ladycats

The Rice Lady Raiders and Weimar Ladycats are about do begin regular season play for their volleyball season but took time to scrimmage each other on Friday, Aug. 9, as a tune up.

Both teams are coming into the season with the same goal of being a playoff team and competing for a State Championship.

The score was not kept in this scrimmage, not officially anyway, but that was not the reason the teams were there. While ultimately sports come down to winning and losing this game provided a chance for competitive reps and game situations while their records are unaffected.

This is a great opportunity for coaches to get a good grasp on their team and find areas to focus on before the season starts.

A coach’s job at the end of the day is to put the team in a position to win. That task becomes easier once they see a few in-game tendencies their team has and this scrimmage provided that.

David Leist, head volleyball coach for the Lady Raiders, and Amanda Machicek, head volleyball coach for the Ladycats, patrolled the court keeping a close eye on their team. They watched the minor details that are going to make their respective teams be successful this season.

As for the players, this was an opportunity to build up their team chemistry. The rosters for the teams are pretty much set so this is the group that they are going to attack the season with.

It’s the perfect time for them to make mistakes and battle through some adversity together before they officially enter the season. Both teams did a great job of communicating with each other to execute their systems on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.

Both the Lady Raiders and Ladycats will be opening their season this week when they begin tournament play of Thursday, Aug. 15, in Van Vleck and Columbus respectively.