Lady Blues volleyball win third straight district title
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The Graham Lady Blues volleyball team poses with the District 6-4A championship trophy following Tuesday’s 3-1 win at Vernon. Pictured are back row, l-r, Emma Ranger, Britain Thayer, Alex Husen, Jillian Wendel, Sierra Morris, Hannah Isom and coach Marci Faulk. Front row, l-r, Morgan Patterson, Reese Echols, Meredith Armstrong, Avery Iles, Chloe Menard, Lilli Brockway and Celeste Aguirre. Leader photo by Travis Martinez
Head coach Marci Faulk knew her team would have an uphill battle heading into this season after losing seven seniors on last year’s 30-7 squad that advanced three rounds deep in the playoffs.
When two-a-days began, the Lady Blues were without two of the better players on last season’s team including district MVP Jasmine Sims and libero Alyssa Hutcheson, who are now playing at the collegiate level.
Yet, Faulk and her staff were able to reload this season winning a district championship for the third straight year. To make the feat even more impressive, the Lady Blues have swept every single district foe on their schedule the last two seasons without having lost a game. Under Faulk’s guidance Graham has only dropped one district outing in the last three years, including having won 21 district games in a row.
“It’s a lot of hard work,” Faulk said after Tuesday’s victory. “This didn’t start in August. What we are doing right now started way back last year. We had a tough spring. They were very committed in summer workouts. Whether it was the weight room workouts, agility workouts, the summer league, team camps they bought in to the program and I am thrilled.”
When Faulk arrived as the head coach at Graham in 2014, the volleyball program wasn’t in the best shape. Over the past four seasons current seniors Avery Iles, Jillian Wendel, Emma...
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