West Side Christian finishes third in tournament

MAGNOLIA - West Side Christian bounced back from a heartbreaking loss to defeat Gospel Light 25-20, 25-17, 25-19 and collected third place Friday in the AACS Preseason Volleyball Tournament, hosted by Columbia Christian.

The Lady Warriors, who breezed through pool play on Thursday without dropping a single set, were surprised in the first round of tournament play by Southwest Christian Academy in five sets - 25-12, 21-25, 20-25, 28-26, 8-15.

West Side had defeated Southwest Christian on Thursday 25-23, 25-11 and looked to be the dominant team in the bracket. Coach Deneisa Jamerson said her team was both surprised and disappointed after the five-set loss.

“I think they were disappointed they lost because we felt we shouldn’t have. That’s the thing. We just shouldn’t have,” said Jamerson.

“If we play our game, we’re in there. We showed that (Thursday). We overcame a lot of mental adversity. Beating Southwest Christian was one of them yesterday.

Beating Gospel Light, a team we had never beaten before, we beat them. At the end of the day, our mental game is what took us out.”

Jamerson believed the Lady Warriors walked onto the court ready to play. But, during the second set, they lost their edge and never regained it.

“I can’t say we came out overconfident. We came out strong. We came with high energy. We made some mental errors that shifted the momentum in that second set. They caught the momentum and we just were never able to catch that momentum back,” she said.

“We took our foot off the gas and gave them a chance to get in there and they took it.”

The manner in which the Lady Warriors responded after the setback could be a momentum builder for the regular season. Jamerson said she was proud of her team, especially for bouncing back and winning the third place game in such an emphatic fashion.

“In light of what happened, yes I do,” she said. “The fact they played a very mentally tough game and they were tired, just played five sets, turned around and had eight minutes on the clock to rest. I think they responded well.”