Dragons Mental Mistakes Come Back to Haunt them

Written Wednesday October 16th, at 12:00 AM

It always has to be Clarkston. Why Clarkson???

For some reason the Lake Orion Dragons have problems with the Wolves in volleyball and tonight those problems against Clarkston continued.

The Wolves now have a firm grip on the Red after going into Lake Orion and beating the Dragons for the fourth time in five match ups in the last two and a half seasons in four games 19-25, 27-25, 25-21, and 25-19.

Clarkston took advantage of Lake Orion’s mental errors and the momentum it gained in the second set after the Dragons led by one set.

A questionable call when the Dragons were about to lead 10-4 led to a double hit call and the point was given to Clarkston. Lake Orion dominated that game and had everything ready to go up two sets to none but the Wolves scrapped and clawed their way back, eventually gained the momentum. The second set was neck and neck only to see Clarkston tie the score at one game a piece.

Ever since that game Lake Orion played tight and it led to service errors and mental mistakes. Clarkston played loose and took advantage of every Dragons mistake with kills of there own and Lake Orion’s mental errors. Even some bad demons returned tonight in the forms of the mental errors and side outs along with mistakes.

Lake Orion will get another chance at Clarkston in the playoffs on their home turf in the district semifinals pending if the Wolves get past Stoney Creek in the pre district, which they likely will.

Clarkston was led by Taylor Dellinger’s 15 kills, Katie Chadwell’s eight kills and five blocks, Brianna Frakes 32 assists, and Kacy Robinson’s 11 kills.

Lake Orion was led by Hannah Murdock’s eight kills and nine digs along with Tess Marshall’s ten kills and ten digs.

I thought Lake Orion played awful tonight. No flow, spacing was bad, and the mental errors skyrocketed. Bad demons did return in this game and players who normally do well struggled in this game. I said before the season that if the Dragons played to their competition that they would lose and they did.

After the second game the Dragons tighten up and started to make mental mistakes while Clarkston played loose and it showed in the third and fourth games. I thought Lake Orion overplayed a lot and overreached a lot and that usually leads to trouble.

I don’t think Clarkston is that much better than Lake Orion. I thought the Dragons had a very off night while the Wolves played well but that is no excuse considering that if you want to go far in the state playoffs you have to beat Clarkston.

Now the Dragons will play the Wolves again and likely will be in the district semifinals at Clarkston but if they play like they did tonight against a red hot Oxford team then the Dragons are in serious trouble. Both the Dragons and Wolves are in the Beast of the East tournament this weekend that features powerhouse teams like Macomb Dakota, Romeo, etc.

The Dragons like I said play a red hot Oxford team who hasn’t lost a set and has Darien Bandell. The Wildcats have been playing well lately and boosts wins over Bloomfield Hills, Troy, and North Farmington. We’ll see what happens Thursday in Oxford.