For the Hackett Jr High and Sr High Lady Hornets, their benefit game on August 20 against the Charleston Lady Tigers, was just what they needed to get fired back up. With being the first volleyball game on their 2019 season schedule, the coaches and Lady Hornets were able to see what was working and what was going to need improvement.
The Jr High squad was first up to the net and through their suppressing aggression, they were able to dominate the entire game. The Lady Hornets won 2-0 against the Lady Tigers with both games ending in a final score of 25-12. Achieving net results in the serves department was Mackenzie Mendenhall and Alona Rothwell with four apiece, Abby McBride with two, and Lilly Slavens with 1 resulting in 11 total team aces. Rounding out the scorecard was Mackenzie Mendenhall with 3 assists, Prairie Vaughn and Makenzie Freeman with 2 assists each, with Vaughn also leading her team in kills with 3, and Alona Rothwell and Tori Blanton securing 2 blocks apiece.
The Sr High Lady Hornets closed out the evening with four speedy and intense matches. Although Hackett lost 1-3, the Sr High team was able to showcase their incredible defensive skills while at the same time, finding the rough patches in their offensive play. Kayla Richardson led the Lady Hornets in the digs category with 21, Shayla Foster had 15, Kandace Byrd and Sarah White both had 7, Madi Taylor had 6 and Brooke Holt had 4.
Head Coach, Bridget Freeman, had this to say about what went wrong offensively. “We definitely missed some serves (12 total) and that hurt us in the three games we lost. I don’t feel our hitting was what we are capable of doing, so I’m hoping to get our sets and hits back in sync with practices the rest of this week. We were a little out of position, filling in spots for an injured setter/hitter, but managed to adjust to the new lineup and give Charleston a good game.”
The next match on the list for the Lady Hornets is on August 27, when they hit the road to face Alpena at 4:30 p.m. Hackett will continue locking down their strong points and fixing their weaknesses in preparation of their next match. “These girls are ready for conference to start. We made team goal sheets and individual goal sheets today, and those will be our focus in the locker room in the future weeks. Alpena was scrappy last year and managed to return a lot of our hits and serves, so we need to be on our toes, ready to play our aggressive game.”
A big Thank You to Mandy Foster for her always awesome picture taking skills!
