Panthers drop decisive fifth set in thrilling match vs. Tintic

If volleyball had quarters or halves like football or basketball, then it would be a tale of two halves for the Panthers against Tintic.
The Panthers played very well in the first half of the game before collapsing in the second half to give the game to the Miners.
In the first few sets the Panthers were resilient, playing hard and not letting the Miners take advantage of their errors.
“They were working as a team, they were talking, and communicating,” said Pinnacle Head Coach Heidi Kay.
After winning the first set the Panthers continued to go back and forth with the Miners.
Trailing 18-17, the Panthers would go on an impressive a 8-2 run to win the second set 25-20.
Pinnacle had big help from their front line of Brielle Mott and Stephanie Sasser in the second sets, both players did not come out of the game during the first few sets.
“They both play the net very well. Brielle Mott is really good at getting those tight passes that go on the net, she is quick like that. Steph knows when to hit the ball and when to hit it lightly over the net,” said Kay.
The third set belonged to the Miners and the beginning of the end for the Panthers on Thursday night.
Multiple times the Miners held a good lead and eventually the Panthers would crawl back.
With the game tied 12-12, Tintic would take the momentum of the set with a 5-0 run. Pinnacle would respond with a 5-0 run of their own and cut the Miners lead to 19-18.
After a timeout from Tintic, Pinnacle would collapse in the third set and lose to Tintic 25-19
“Emotionally, we took ourselves out of the game. We weren’t working communicating, we weren’t talking, and weren’t working as a whole. If you can’t do that, you’re not going to win any ball games,” said Kay.
Pinnacle would bounce back in the fourth set with an impressive 7-2 start.
That lead would dissolve as errors and miscommunications would lurk in and Tintic would cut the lead to 11-9.
Tintic would take over the fourth set and go on to force the fifth and final set with a dominating 25-17 win.
The Panthers couldn’t get anything going in the fifth set and trailed by as much as 9-2.
Tintic would hold on to win the fifth set to complete the win, 15-4.
Coach Kay said after the game that she told her team to move forward and learn from what happened against the Miners.
“The skill is there, they just have to go back to the basics and have confidence in themselves. They have to find a way to make that one error just one error and not snowball into more errors,” said Kay.
Panthers now sit at 1-4 overall and 0-2 in Region 19 play with plenty of games left to get back in the thick of things for the region crown.
They will have a week off of games until they host Utah Military Academy in a non-region game.
Pinnacle returns to Region 19 play on September 11 against Monticello at home.