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(ALEX HAVARDANSKY | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Emily Hughes (left) and Madison Cauble (right) go up for a block Tuesday, Aug. 12, against the Lady Bulldogs. Cauble had a set clinching block to seal a set three win for the team. -
(ALEX HAVARDANSKY | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Lady Blues head coach Marci Faulk, and her team, talk strategy in between sets Tuesday, Aug. 12, against the Lady Bulldogs. The team went on to beat Burkburnett 3-2 in five sets. -
(ALEX HAVARDANSKY | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Katy McGehee lines up for a serve Tuesday, Aug. 12, against the Lady Bulldogs. McGehee is one of several veteran leaders on this team.
The Lady Blues started their volleyball season off in style, defeating the Burkburnett Lady Bulldogs in a five set thriller.
The team traveled Tuesday, Aug. 12 to Burkburnett full of anticipation. However, things did not get off to the start the team would have wanted.
The Lady Bulldogs took the early advantage in this one, winning the first two sets by scores of 25-20 and 25-19 respectively.
While the team was ultimately able to come back and win, not falling behind to such a degree was something that head coach Marci Faulk said the team would need to address going forward.
“Start strong,” Faulk said. “I thought in the first couple of sets we were playing a little sluggish. Our energy was low.”
The Graham team needed a bounce back set to save the match in set three, and they delivered. The teams went back and forth with players like Emily Hughes and Kaden Atwood keeping the team in the set early with points.
An ace from Katy McGehee at the service line and three straight points after that from the Lady Blues made it 9-6 Graham.
Hughes, McGehee and Tara Dawson led the team the rest of the way in the set racking up points and kills while Madison Cauble put the icing on the cake with a block to win the set 25-22 and keep Graham in the set.
Set four spelled trouble early for the Lady Blues. It looked like things could be the beginning of the end of the day as Graham fell all the way down trailing 13-4 to the Lady Bulldogs.
However, Kya Cooper stepped up to the service line and provided the stability the team needed. The team battled all the way back to tie the score at 13 all and eventually take the lead 14-13, off of multiple aces from Cooper along with sound passing from the rest of the team.
The Lady Blues started to pull away after that and Rylee Moore ended things in the set with a point to pick up Graham’s second straight set win for a match deciding set five, where Graham would just need to reach the 15-point mark first to win.
In that final set both teams were giving it their all, the teams traded one point leads back and forth all the way up to the score being tied 8-8. However, Burk’s big mistake that set was an out of bounds hit which led to Graham taking a 9-8 lead.
The Lady Blues never surrendered the lead again with McGehee, Dawson and Moore helping the Lady Blues pull away with a 15-11 final score and a match win for the Lady Blues.
“What we did tonight is called a reverse sweep,” Faulk said. “We dropped the first two, came back and won the next three. That’s very rare and it’s very hard, but I credit that to all their summer work.”
After participating in the Llano tournament this weekend, the Lady Blues will be on the road again Tuesday, Aug. 19, for a match at 5:30 p.m. against Jim Ned.
