(New Buffalo, MI) - The New Buffalo High School girls’ volleyball team hopes to continue their winning ways at home during the upcoming conference tournament.  The tournament, hosted at New Buffalo High School, is Saturday.

 

The Lady Bison (21-10-3) are the third seed in the tournament behind Michigan Lutheran School and Our Lady of the Lake Catholic School.

 

Head Coach Bruce Molineaux said the goal is to play Our Lady of the Lake, the overwhelming favorite to win the tournament, for a shot at the championship.  The state ranked Lakers are 28-2 and 10-0 in their division of the Berrien Cass St. Joseph Conference.  The Bison lost all three sets but were competitive in their match with the Lakers during the regular season.

 

Reaching the championship game won’t be easy considering the number of other evenly matched teams like River Valley and Howardsville Christian in the conference.

 

“The teams in the league are very similar.  The only difference is Our Lady of the Lake has the two girls that can really put the ball down.  Otherwise, the teams are very similar,” he said.

 

Molineaux said he focused heavily during practice this week on things like striking the ball hard with accuracy along with blocking returned shots at the net to try and his position his team for a deep run.

 

“We’re going to work on our offense and defense this week and see if we can get some breaks here and there and pull something out,” he said.

 

Scrimmage games were also held against the junior varsity team.

 

Molineaux said limiting mistakes is always key to victory but hopes playing the tournament at home can be a deciding factor since their regular season games against Michigan Lutheran, Our Lady of the Lake and River Valley were on the road.

 

“Home field helps a little bit,” he said.