CHARLESTON, Tenn. -- The Walker Valley Lady Mustangs jumped straight into the volleyball fire to open the season with a pair of battles against two of the top teams in the area.
The Lady Mustangs fell to Girls Preparatory School in their season opener Monday, 3-1, then battled to the final point Tuesday before succumbing to the Lady Owls 3-2
The Bruisers of GPS won sets one, three and four by scores of 25-23, 25-21 and 25-19. The Lady Herd took set two by a 25-21 margin
Tuesday inside “The Stable” Walker Valley (0-2) fell in the opening set by a score of 25-21 before roaring back to take the second set, 25-22. Set three went to the Lady Owls (1-0) by a 25-22 margin to go up 2-1. The Lady Mustangs caught fire in set four dominating from start to finish with a 25-15 win. The momentum carried into the final set of the night as the teams fought to the final point with Ooltewah pulling out a close 15-13 victory.
The Lady Mustangs will be on the road Thursday in another non-district matchup at Bradley Central.
The first set of the night set the tone for the evening as the Lady Mustangs stayed close, but were unable to catch the high flying Owls. Trailing 18-12, Walker Valley rallied back to cut the gap to 18-17 before Ooltewah took control to jump ahead 22-17. A service error game Ooltewah the win, 25-21.
Walker Valley rallied back in the second set pushing to a 9-5 advantage before the Owls heated up to knot the score 11-11. A kill by Ava Davis and a service ace from Journey Rollo helped the Lady Mustangs push to an 18-14 lead. Ooltewah came back to tie the score at 22-22. Madelin McBrayer's kill and and an Ooltewah miscue made it 24-23. Rollo gave the Lady Mustangs the win wit a block to close out the 25-23 score.
Another tough scrap in the third set saw the Lady Owls take a 12-5 lead. Walker Valley again stayed close and trailed by just three points, 16-13, midway through. An ace by Emily Phillips helped put the Lady Owls out front 22-15. the Lady Mustangs battled back to close the score to 24-22 before a final kill by Miyah Taylor ended the set in favor of the Owls.
The fourth set was, for the most part, all Lady Mustangs. Walker Valley raced to a 12-3 lead that included three aces, one from Calleigh Collins and two by Rollo. The run also saw kills by Rollo, McBrayer and Sophia Davis and a block by McBrayer.
Rollo stepped to the service line with a 17-13 lead and before she gave it up Walker Valley had run off seven consecutive point to go on top 23-13. The Lady Owls came back late to tighten the score to 24-19 before Davis slammed the door with final kill.
The final set of the long night began with the Owls and Mustangs swapping points with Ooltewah finally managing to go on top 9-7. Rollo's ace knotted the score 9-9 before a side out and kill by Taylor gave Ooltewah an 11-9 lead. With the score tied 12-12, The Lady Owls were able to push across the final three points to close out the evening with a 15-12 win.
“This is an exciting team to coach. At the beginning we started really slow and we were kind of off. But, to see them take that and instead of shutting down more they fought through it. Bad games happen, mistakes happen. But, they fought through and made sure they didn't end that way,” said Lady Mustangs head coach Abby Stroh. “While a loss is not fun, I think to see this team the way they fought through that loss they left what they could out there and I'm very proud of them for that.”
The Lady Owls host Signal Mountain and the Patriots at home Wednesday and and travel to Rhea County Thursday.
“I thought we started out well. Then we made a lot of unforced errors. We had a poor serving percentage for the night,” stated Ooltewah head coach Elaine Peigan. “I thought Walker Valley did a fantastic job on offense and speeding up their offense. I think it's going to be a good season. We'll take the win, baby.”
(Contact Richard Roberts at richardvol55@tahoo.com)