VOLLEYBALL

kills, 9 digs), and sophomore middle blocker Heidi White (8 kills, 11 digs) were Cibola’s top performers in Thursday’s loss.

The third set featured a 7-0 Raiders run early to put them up 10-4, and a 6-1 run late to increase their lead to 22-13.

“Yeah, definitely,” Anderson said if the Raiders’ 25-18 third-set victory had them believing they could replicate the previous night’s rally. “We wanted it, for sure. I felt we could.”

But any momentum Cibola felt was short-lived, as a 9-1 Imperial run midway through the fourth set put the Raiders in an insurmountable 17-6 hole.

“They’re a really great team, definitely, I just feel like we came out pretty sluggish,” Anderson said. “I don’t know, maybe just last night’s thrill just kind of made us tired. But the other team played very well.”

Anderson also attributed the slow start to the fact that Thursday’s match was the Raiders’ third in as many nights. On Tuesday, they traveled to Phoenix to

face a top-10 6A team in Pinnacle, and suffered a 3-25, 9-25, 10-25 defeat.

The fatigue brought on from that road trip, Anderson felt, showed in the first two sets Wednesday before the Raiders were able to overcome it.

“I think we played better last night,” Anderson said. “I think we, all around, everyone was so energized (after the first two sets) that they just picked up their game, everybody on the team. Versus today, there were some that didn’t make it on the court, had some struggles with their mental game and stuff like that.”