Lady Lions split critical matches

This past week the Lady Lion Volleyball team played two critical matches. The Lady Lions were able to split these matches losing to Steele 11-25, 23-25 and 17-25 and then beating Del Valle 25-16, 27-25, 25-23.

Lady Lions v. Steele
Against Steele the Lady Lions came out real slow, according to Head Coach Jeff Witte.
“It looked as if we were playing with lea

d in our shoes, compared to some of our previous games as we seemed to be just a step behind Steele,” he said.
The Lady Lions picked it up in Games Two and Three, but were still unable to pull it out. After the tough start in Game One the Lady Lions came back strong in game two and gave themselves a chance in Game Two, but failed to make some plays late that could have won the game.
“I felt that if we could have pulled out a win in Game Two, it would have given us the momentum we needed to turn the match around in our favor,” Witte said. “We failed to make the plays necessary to win the game.”
Offensively the Lady Lions were led by Kelly Witte with six kills, followed by Jenee Clay with four, Ashley Moore and Camille Clay with three each and Brianna Hinnenkamp, Natalie Raemsch and Mariah Carter with two kills each.
Shelby Henrichs led the Lions with ten assists, followed by Meredith Moore with seven and Raemsch and Andrea Carter two assist each.
K. Witte led the Lady Lions in digs with 12, followed by Ashley Johnson with 10 and Hinnenkamp with seven. K. Witte also led the Lions in blocks with three.

Lady Lions
v. Del Valle
On Friday, the Lady Lions traveled to Del Valle to play the Lady Cardinals.
This game became even more critical for the Lady Lions after the loss to Steele.
“I was very concerned about how we would respond after the loss to Steele and also the fact that we narrowly escaped with a victory earlier in the year against Del Valle at the San Marcos Tournament,” Coach Witte said. “We had two good days of practice leading into the game where we were able to work on some elements of the game that we did not do well against Steele.”
The Lady Lions passed the ball off serve reception as well as they have all season, which led to the setters being able to handle the ball and put it in a spot the hitters could kill it.
“We also spent a couple of practices working on setting the ball from the back row when we were unable to make a pass to the setters and it paid off with about six kills that normally end up being free balls,” Witte said.
The Lady Lions ran their offensive plays as well as they have all season, spreading the ball around very well.
Kelly Witte led the Lady Lions in kills with nine, followed by Camille and Jenee Clay with seven each. Natalie Raemsch had six kills.
Shelby Henrichs led the Lady Lions with 16 assists, followed by Andrea Carter with six, and Raemsch and Meredith Moore with three each.
Ashley Johnson led the defensive effort with 10 digs followed by Brianna Hinnenkamp with nine, K. Witte with seven, Henrichs with six and Ashley Moore with five.
K. Witte led the team in blocks with three, followed by M. Carter with two. Hinnenkamp had an excellent game serving with four aces and scoring 25 points out of 31 serves.
The Lady Lions finished the first round of District play against Clemens on Tuesday evening. They will travel to Hays to start the second round on Friday.
(Courtesy of Jeff Witte)