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Lady Indians player Kiersta Trammell puts a powerful hit on the ball at the net for a kill during Lumpkin’s win over Prince Avenue Christian last week.
The LCHS varsity volleyball team’s hot streak cooled off a bit last when the Lady Indians lost three of four games last week, giving the team an overall record of 14-13 with a month remaining before the Area Tournament.
“We played against some tough teams this week and we had some very good moments, and we also saw a lot that we need to work on,” said LCHS head volleyball coach Haley Dibble. “With region games coming up soon, we have to learn from the mistakes we are making now to better our game coming up.”
The Lady Indians began the week by hosting Union County and Prince Avenue Christian at the Longhouse on Tuesday, Sept. 3.
Lumpkin faced off with the Lady Panthers of Union County in its first game of the day.
After a back-and-forth to start the first set, the Lady Indians began to pull away from Union County behind superb net play and a solid service game. The back line also helped out by digging out some tough balls during the set. The result of the strong play by the Lady Indians was a decisive 25-15 win in the first set.
Things didn’t go quite as smooth for the Lady Indians in the second set, however, and the Lady Panthers took advantage of poor communication by Lumpkin;s back line to power their way to a 25-21 second set victory.
With the two teams tied 1-1 after the first two sets, the Lady Indians and Lady Panthers had to decide the game in a tie-breaking, third set. Lumpkin put up a strong fight in what proved to be a battle on the court in the tie-breaking set, but the Lady Indians’ efforts would come up just short as Union County eked out a 15-13 win to take the game by a final score of 2-1.
Dibble was upset with her players’ performance versus the Lady Panthers and felt that the communication on the back line combined with a lack of energy led to the team’s downfall in the game.
“We should be able to beat this team,” Dibble said. “Our communication wasn’t there and neither was the energy we normally have. I felt like we played down to their level and that’s disappointing.”
Dibble’s disappointment was erased when the Lady Indians bounced back to defeat a strong Prince Avenue Christian team in three sets in the second game of the day.
The first two sets between Lumpkin and Prince Avenue Christian proved to be highly competitive with each team making runs when they needed to.
Lumpkin lost the first set 25-23 despite making a late set rally, but bounced back with a 25-22 second set win to tie the game at 1-1.
In the third and decisive set, the Lady Indians displayed exactly how well they can play by dominating Prince Avenue Christian in every facet of the game. The Lady Indians jumped out to an early 9-1 advantage and never looked back. Lumpkin won the set 15-6 to earn a 2-1 victory.
The win kept the Lady Indians’ hot streak ablaze, giving Lumpkin 11 wins in its last 15 games.
The hot streak would come to an end, however, when the Lady Indians traveled to Gainesville High School on Thursday, Sept. 5, to square off with Gainesville and Tallulah Falls.
Gainesville proved to be too much for Lumpkin to handle and the Lady Red Elephants cruised to a 2-0 victory in straight sets, 25-13 and 25-14.
The Lady Indians then put in a tenacious effort against Tallulah Falls in the first set of the two teams’ game, but fell short 25-23 to fall behind 1-0. In the second set, Tallulah Falls continued to get the upper hand and pulled out another close victory to earn a 2-0 win over Lumpkin.
The two losses dropped the Lady Indians’ overall record to 14-13 on the season with a month left to play in the 2019 regular season.
Dibble is hoping that her players can correct the mistakes they made during the week and get back to playing their brand of volleyball for the remainder of the season.
“Right now we are working on finding consistency on the court and not letting our opponent dictate the level we play,” Dibble said.
At press time, the LCHS varsity volleyball team was set to take on Union and Gilmer counties at Union County High School on Tuesday, Sept. 10. No official results were available.
The Lady Indians will be back in action when they travel to Habersham tomorrow, Sept. 12. First set is scheduled to start at 5 p.m.