Cape volleyball falls to Newark Charter
The Cape volleyball squad hit the highest of emotional highs in defeating Caesar Rodney 3-2 Sept. 12, but just five days later, the Vikings hit a low after falling to Newark Charter 3-0 Sept. 17.
“Inconsistency, unfortunately, has been our MO this season,” said Cape coach Tyler Coupe. “Our unforced errors have been and will keep holding us back if we don’t stop it. We talk about it all day in practice, and to come into the gym and see us make the same mistakes and look at each other like ‘What’s going on?’ We know what’s going on, and to see us not adjust, it’s frustrating.”
The Patriots, a DIAA tournament finalist in 2018, put pressure on from the beginning, taking a 25-15 first-set win and continuing with 25-12, 25-14 victories.
Morgan Ritchie scored 18 kills to lead the Patriots, while McKenna Ritchie bumped 21 digs and Emma Ueltzhoffer assisted on 29 winning points.
The Lady Vikings had only 12 kills as a team.
Junior libero Emily Lamb scored 13 digs to lead the Vikings.
“I feel like we let them beat us a lot,” said Lamb. “We weren’t covering a lot of spots that we should have realized that they were hitting to, and hitting errors have been a big thing for us lately. Serving errors also hurt us. We need to get better at communicating.”
“We start out strong,” said Coupe. “We were competitive. We were alert. Once there was separation, there was this weird energy where we just freaked out and stopped playing. If we want to have any success this season, we have to be strong from the get-go.”
The junior varsity Vikings fell to 1-3 on the season with a loss to the JV Partriots.
The Vikings were set to travel to Smyrna Thursday, Sept. 19, to face the 3-2 Eagles.
