Broncbusters drop season opener to Trinidad State

By Mike Pilosof

Photo by Adam Shrimplin

Trinidad, CO-Opening day was a tough pill to swallow for Head Coach, Patrick Hiltz.

Despite holding sizable leads in three of the four sets, Garden City failed to finish, falling to Trinidad State in four 23-25, 25-18, 23-25, 13-25 Friday afternoon.

 "We simply need to get better is all," Hiltz said afterwards. "Our setting needs to be much better, our defense, pretty much every touch of the ball needs to be better."

After falling down early in the opening stanza, the Broncbusters rallied with an 8-2 run to build a four-point edge following Alli Meng's block at the net. Laren Baldowsky made a nice defensive play, Meng chipped in a service ace, and Garden City was in business up 21-19. But following a timeout, the Trojans responded, and when Amirah Young hammered a kill down the line, the set was tied at 23. Add a couple of Broncbuster miscues, and Trinidad State took the first set.

"Considering we had no block, I thought we competed well defensively," Hiltz added.  

Garden City bounced back in the second. Giorgia Cappelletti and Meng tallied two powerful swings, freshman, McKenna Jagels added a block, and K'Adriahna Arellano setup Cappelletti for an emphatic spike that put the brown and gold up, 10-5. They were up six later in the frame thanks to a Meng kill and a Baldowsky block that evened the match, 1-1.

In the third, Garden City led by as many as four after a Trinidad State attack made it 17-13. But it didn't stick as the Trojans stormed back to take a 23-21 advantage. Moments later, Young's spike put Trinidad State ahead two sets to one.

"We don't value each touch of the ball the way we need to in order to win games," Hiltz stated.

The fourth set looked like Garden City flat ran out of gas. Trinidad State used a 14-9 spurt to build a 20-13 lead once Auriandra Waters dropped in a service ace. A couple of Broncbuster errors, and Desirae Ortivez's crosscourt kill, and the match was over.

"We have a team full of freshman, so we are going to have some games that don't look great," Hiltz explained.

Meng had eight kills, and Remi Vargas chipped in 20 assists for Garden City.