Lady Blues experience growing pains in season-opening loss

The Lady Blues have a lot of growing to do. The young team traveled to Springtown for the season opener and fell in straight sets. The Lady Porcupines defeated the Lady Blues 25-10, 25-19, 25-11.

There was always going to be a steep learning curve for this year’s roster which features four freshmen and two sophomores. It is a challenge the team seems ready to take on. After falling behind 3-0 to open the match, two points via errors on the Lady Blues’ side, it was a freshman, Braylee Mayes, who scored the first kill of the 2021 season for the Lady Blues. Senior Emma Parker followed up with a kill for the first of only two times in the opening set where the Lady Blues scored on back-to-back rallies.

Following the points, which brought the Lady Blues to within one point, the Lady Porcupines went on a set-defining run. After a swing from Mayes sent the ball sailing out of bounds, the Lady Porcupines went on a 13-0 run from which the visitors could not recover.

“I just told them we have to get comfortable in our own skin playing on this court,” Lady Blues coach Marci Faulk said. “I assured them that everyone is going to make a mistake. You just have to not play not to make a mistake. I told them you have to be aggressive and when you’re aggressive you know that it’s going to happen.”

For the rest of the story, see the Aug. 14 edition of The Graham Leader.