The Heritage boys volleyball team defeated Pittsburgh High School (25-13, 25-19, 25-18) in the North Coast Section opener of the Division 1 playoffs, but head coach Janet Hannigan said Tuesday night was not satisfied with the team's performance in the match against. Pirates.
“I don't think they (Heritage) played very well tonight. It was tough to watch,” Hannigan said. “Even with free balls, we had to utilize them better so that we could run the offense. We were supposed to run more plays than what we were running. Tonight was below average as everyone has to do their job.
Hannigan said the overall lackluster performance, in which the Patriots committed 25 errors as a team and the team gave up 17 points to the Pirates in the second set, required a change in the team's mindset.
“You've got to think like a champion and play like a champion,” Hannigan said. “Some teams don't care who they play. They want to smear that on themselves, but we don't and that's too bad. We have to do that. Otherwise, we don't. It will get dirty soon.”
Hannigan said he felt many of the offensive mistakes stemmed from his team struggling to pass the ball cleanly.
“We didn't pass as well as we should,” Hannigan said. “We're passing the ball over the net, but if the setter is too close to the net, it's difficult to put together a decent set.”
But one area Hannigan was satisfied with was her tenure serving more actively. After the Patriots lost to Liberty in the final game of the season, she said she felt her team's serve was “too easy.”
With a win in the first round, Heritage advances to the quarterfinals of the NCS Playoffs where they will face James Logan. In the opening game of last year's NCS playoffs, the Colts came back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Patriots 3-2.
Hannigan said James Logan's rambunctious personality made them difficult to play. After Tuesday's game, Hannigan reportedly told his team, “If we go into it with the mindset we had tonight, we could be in the same situation we were last year.''
“I told them I could never go down that road again,” Hannigan said. “You can’t go in there and get comfortable and think this is going to be easy, because nothing is going to be easy from here.”
Heritage defeated James Logan 2-0 in the Falcon Invitational Tournament earlier this season, and Hannigan sees the playoff rematch as another step toward the Patriots' preseason goal of qualifying for the California playoffs. ing.
“Our goal from the beginning was to go as far as we could,” Hannigan said. “Everything is in (the players') hands. That's all I can do. It's up to them to play better.”