craigdailypress.com

Communication on the court is key -- it's one of the most basic rules of sports. For the Bulldogs the key didn't come easy during the University of Northern Colorado Volleyball Classic July 19 to 22.

"We have a lot of work to do," head coach Becky Jackson said.

That work will be done by spending hours in the gym, getting to know each player's strengths and weaknesses and working on fundamentals.

At the UNC Classic, the Bulldogs were placed in the Division I bracket, but went 2-7 in pool play, and were moved down into a lower bracket for the rest of the tournament.

During the single elimination part of the tournament, the Bulldogs came out firing in the first game.

"We killed it," Jackson said. "We were hustling, hitting and talking."

The next two games didn't go quite like the first, and the Bulldogs had the tables turned on them.

"We lost the next two games and we were done," Jackson said. "It was very frustrating for me."

Jackson's frustrations are shared by the team.

"We had our moments," Mackenzie Maneotis said. "Then there were times when we weren't into it and just gave up."

Maneotis, now a junior, will be playing varsity for the first time this year and knows the team has challenges ahead.

"Most of our team plays basketball too, so we split our summers between the two sports," Maneotis said.

That split time has hampered some of the players, and for Jackson, not being able to be in the high school gym the month of July has been a curse.

"They are refinishing the floors, which is great, but it leaves us with limited practice space," Jackson said. "I am very grateful to the middle