Lady Wildcats start region play with key win over Columbia
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Senior Britton Dunnam is shown going up for a kill and the point during action against St. Patrick last week in Biloxi. Dunnam and the Lady Wildcats kicked off region play with a win at Columbia and will look to start region play 2-0 when they host Forrest County AHS on Thursday. Also shown are (L-R) senior co-captains Madison King and Caitlyn Pearce, along with junior Madison Todd.
Contributed Photo
From Staff Reports
The Greene County volleyball team has been playing competitively for full month. But, the games that really matter on their schedule began earlier this week and the Lady Cats started off with a bang.
The Lady Wildcats traveled to Columbia on Tuesday for their first Region 7-4A contest of the year. They came away with a key, straight set win, defeating the other Lady Wildcats 25-23, 25-18 and 25-15 to start region play 1-0.
“We got the job done,” Coach Danielle King told the Herald on the way home after the game. “It wasn’t our best performance, but our girls battled, got better each set and finished strong.”
But, a win in region play is a good win, and the Lady Cats were glad to make the trip back down U.S. 98 with the ‘W’ in tow. They don’t have a lot of time to savor the win, however, as they turn right around this Thursday and host Forrest County AHS in their second region game of the year. GCHS will pack six more region games in before the month of September ends. They will play Columbia and FCAHS each once again, but also have home-and-away series set with region foes from Purvis and Sumrall.
King, who coaches the team alongside Stacy Eubanks, said she feels good about their team’s preparation for the region schedule.
“All but one of our non-region games have been against bigger schools, or schools with well-known, well-established teams,” King said prior to Tuesday’s match in Columbia. “We scheduled that way on purpose, knowing that we were going to face very good teams, such as Purvis and Sumrall, in region play.”
“We wanted to be prepared for their faster pace of play, along with some good hitters both teams will have.”
King said she is proud of the way the team has come together and the way they have been playing over the past couple of weeks, although all their matches did not end in wins.
“We have lost some nail biters, but it was due to mental errors, not capability,” King said. “A couple of sets we’ve played have went past your usual 25-point cap, as we went to a set of 27 with St. Patrick and one to 29 with Presbyterian Christian.”
She said the recent matches have provided her and Eubanks a chance to make some adjustments she believes will be big during September’s tough stretch.
“We’ve made a few changes in our rotations to put our blockers in better positions against our opponent’s best hitters and I think it has worked out well,” King note. “Heading into district play this week I think the girls are ready. They’ve played well as a team lately and have really worked hard to fix some small errors that we’ve made this season.”
