Amy Davis

COURTLAND

The Lady Indians defeated Colonial Heights Colonials 3 to 1 in Wednesday night’s home opener. The Indians took the first two games, 25-14 and 25-18. In the third game we lost some momentum and lost 19-25. We had a strong finish winning in the fourth set 25-22.

I thought the girls played extremely well as a team. We made a few mistakes we hope to cut down on as we progress this season, but it was a great showing. This year we will set three goals to achieve each game, as well as each player having team goals and individual goals to work for the season. We met two out of our three goals for this game, a great balance of success while still leaving us room for improvement.

The win tonight was big for us, Colonial Heights — although they are not in our district — they are part of region. We could see them in this year’s regional tournament. VHSL restructured post-season play. We will have a district tournament this year hosted by the district champ followed by regionals that will determine what teams go on to state competition.

Some standouts for the night: Ashlyn Edwards had 3 aces and 13 assists; Jamey Bunn had 6 aces and 8 assists; and Emma Drake had 3 aces and 19 kills.

Both the Lady Indians JV and Varsity defeated the Windsor Dukes on Thursday night in straight sets. The JV scores were 25-17 and 25-7, and varsity scores were 25-20, 25-13 and 25-8. Both teams started out slowly but had a strong finish.

Some standouts in the JV game: Shea Lindsey had 6 kills and 1 ace; Kinna Magette had 4 aces and 16 assists; and Mallory Francis had 7 aces and 6 kills.

Some standouts in the varsity game: Ashlyn Edwards had 4 aces and 8 assists; Madison Wright had 5 kills; Jamey Bunn had 3 aces and 13 assists; and Emma Drake had 9 aces, 13 kills, and 3 blocks.

I thought the last two sets in the match are the best volleyball the team has played so far this year. The win was definitely an all-around team win.

Junior setter and outside hitter Jamey Bunn said, “The first set was a tight finish, but into the second and third sets we built up our momentum and played strong like the team we are. We had great communication and we were able to come up with our third win of the season.”

Senior middle hitter Emma Drake said, “After a great win against Colonial Heights, we definitely found the drive for our team. Once we dropped one set against Colonial Heights we knew what defeat felt like. And we didn’t like the feeling. So we came back even stronger. And I believe that the drive we ended with is what brought us to the win tonight.

“We all knew having these two completive games back to back we would have our work cut out for us. But once we are on the court we have a bound that cannot be broken easily. And a team that comes together like ours is going to be the team to beat.”

The JV team is 1-0 and the varsity is 3-0. Our next match is next Thursday, Sept. 7, at home against Greensville. Play begins at 5:30 p.m.