The Charleston Lady Tigers traveled to Clarksville Monday night to open the 2019 volleyball season. In dominant fashion, Charleston defeated the Lady Panthers in straight sets to win the match 3-0. Charleston took care of business on the road with scores of 25-11, 25-6, and 25-9. Charleston looked every bit the part of a team that will challenge for their 3A conference title and a possible birth to the state tournament.
In junior varsity action, the Charleston junior varsity swept the Clarksville JV by a score of 2-0. The junior varsity continues to impress with each game, showing both quality depth and future talent development for next year.
Coach Ryan Rachuy was very pleased overall with his teams’ performances. “Clarksville is scrapy, they go after every ball. We just came out and was on top of everything we needed to be on top of. We’re finding spaces with our serves, we were taking advantage of the points that were given to us. I am proud of how the girls played. We changed things around. We’re in non-conference so we’re trying to see what combinations work, how girls react to different things, getting them to buy in. It doesn’t matter who is on the floor as long as a “W” is made.
Several players impressed Rachuy in the win. “Sydney Kaempfe for us in the opposite. I mean there were a couple of points where we really needed good swings, and she is a girl that doesn’t say much, doesn’t ask for a ton of sets coming her way. She just plays her position, does her job, and when the ball is put in front of her she usually makes a good swing and takes advantage of it.”
Lady Tigers hitter Jadyn Womack continued to impress from her performance last week against Hackett. “Jadyn did a really good job, I don’t think she had a single hit error tonight. She’s a machine when she gets out there and gets in a groove. I think our middles, we rotated three middles tonight, Khiley Frederick, she’s an anchor in the middle, she’s great defensively, she’s a good server. Bria Byrd is very energetic, very lively, she wants to get after everything. Addy Newheart, maybe a little undersized for a middle, but is extremely athletic, is a good passer.”
There is no doubt that the depth of the varsity plus the success of the junior varsity gives Charleston a great advantage as they enter the season. With the talent development that has taken place over the past few years, the pressure is off any one player to carry the load for Charleston to be competitive. Rachuy challenged his players early on to make it tough for the coaches to decide who would play this season. By the Lady Tigers performance thus far, that is exactly what is happening. It’s a great problem to have, one that many coaches would love to have. “I can’t do anything but give our players and Coach Dawn Rainwater the credit. We push them in drills. We tell them they have to practice as hard as they can. When you get out there in a game, it is just a little easier.”
Charleston will be back on the road in less than 24 hours to play at Ozark on Tuesday, August 27. First game begins at 4;30 p.m. Junior high “B”, junior high “A,”, senior high junior varsity, followed by senior high varsity games will be played on the four game night. There is little time to enjoy tonight’s win. For Rachuy’s Lady Tigers, their first challenge will be to match tonight’s intensity on back-to-back nights of playing on the road. My guess is, Charleston will again be ready to play!
