Following a week in which the Pirates went 7-1 to move their record to 9-10 on the season, boy’s volleyball was looking for a big win over visiting Collingswood on Monday afternoon at home.
The Panthers had other plans, grabbing the victory in two sets over the Pirates (25-19, 26-24), dropping Cinnaminson to 9-11 on the season.
There is plenty of time left in the regular season for the Pirates to pull even and move above the .500 mark and they are definitely headed in the right direction.
“From two weeks ago to now, yea, they are playing really well. We just dug ourselves into an eight-point hole in the first game,” head coach Robert Spier said. “We outplayed them after that, but wound up losing by five points. If you do the math, we outscored them from that point on, but we can’t drop points in a row. Even the second game, when we had the lead, we dropped seven points in a row.”
In game one, the Pirates were never able to recover from the 8-0 deficit to begin the game, coming within as many as four points, but never tying the Panthers.
In game two, the Pirates built a 7-3 lead and then an 18-12 lead before the Panthers finally tied the game at 19 by scoring six consecutive points. The Pirates would trail for the first time at 20-19, the seventh straight point for the Panthers in game two.
Cinnaminson would go down 24-21 late in game two, but score three straight to tie it at 24 before the Panthers scored the final two points of the game to win 26-24.
This is the second loss of the season for the Pirates against Collingswood. Cinnaminson dropped their season-opener to the Panthers in three sets.
“I think we played well both games. The first game, we went to three with them, so statistically that was a better game since this game we dropped in two,” Spier said. “I’m happy with the way they played today except for those two stretches.”
Spier attributed the 7-1 stretch last week to an increase in confidence for the Pirates.
“They started to believe in themselves more and that’s the difference. Our one weakness, still right now, is once we lose two points in a row, we start to doubt ourselves again. Over the past week, it’s definitely been our confidence that’s boosted us up.”
The Pirates return to the court on Wednesday, April 29 at 4pm against St. Augustine at home.
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