You felt the electricity the moment you stepped into the gym Tuesday night at Litchfield High School. A rowdy Hutchinson student section approximately 50 strong awaited volleyball fans as their Tigers traveled for a Wright County Conference matchup.
But the energy wasn’t quite enough to help the Tigers overcome a strong performance by Litchfield, which took a 25-20, 25-16, 25-17 win.
“They’re solid. They got some good players, and head coach Darin (Swenson) knows. He could see that balance that if Litchfield was going to beat us, this was going to be the year to have opportunities,” Hutchinson coach Dennis Piechowski said after the match.
Hutchinson was clearly on its heels early on before finding its footing to rebound.
“We don’t have a lot of firepower right now,” Piechowski said, alluding to limited experience on this year’s roster. “We have to play a lot of defense and when you do that, you’re going to get scored on. Teams can sit back and crack it to where your (players) aren’t, and when that happens you get frustrated and that makes it a lot easier for them.”
After early struggles, the Tigers got themselves back into the first game, narrowing the game not quite getting over the hump.
Piechowski acknowledged it’s difficult to have a clear offensive strategy as his team develops.
”Let’s see if we can attack the back, three or four feet of the court and put pressure, defensively, on there,” he said. “It’s a new philosophy. We haven’t used that before. The coaches and I are trying to figure out what fits best for this team.”
Hutchinson’s current starting roster has two players with varsity experience, and one who is now in at middle hitter, where she’s never played before.
“The speed of the game is different from JV,” Piechowski said. “You could see how loud it was in here, the energy and the excitement…if you haven’t been in that world before, things are going 100 mph.”
Piechowski has ideas how to coach his players up for the next challenge.
“The biggest thing is, we have to serve the ball more aggressively. Why are we getting peppered up high? Are we playing them too close? We’re going to take a look to see what we can do, first ball-contact has always got to be key.” he said.
Piechowski said he saw the Tigers’ service improve in the third game, but said it has a way to go. He’s confident things will improve as the season evolves, however.
Hang with us, we’re going to be better in the middle of October than we are now,” he said.
Hutchinson (0-2) travels to White Bear Lake (1-0) of the Suburban East Conference at 7 p.m. Thursday.
