Lady Lions tame Lobos in three

Lady Lions v. Lehman
The Lady Lions are in full swing now with district play. Last Friday night the Ladies played host to The Lady Lobos of Lehman High School.
The Lady Lions came out really strong and played well the entire night to win the match in three straight games by scores of 25-12, 25-17 and 25-15.
“I was concerned with how the Ladies would respon

d after playing Hays, New Braunfels and Canyon all in a row,” said Coach Jeff Witte. “[They] played like champions, showing a lot of pride in the way they played.”
The Lady Lions were led defensively by Brianna Hinnenkamp with nine digs, followed by Ashley Johnson with seven. Shelby Henrichs and Ashley Moore each had six digs. Kelly Witte led the Lady Lions with 2.5 blocks. She also led the offensive effort with 14 kills, many of those being what are referred to as “happy birthdays.” Camille Clay followed with seven kills and Hinnenkamp had five. Shelby Henrichs led the assist category with 12 followed by Meredith Moore with four and Andrea Carter with three.
“I was really proud of the way we played tonight,” Witte said. “It would have been easy to be down after our first three district games yet the Ladies came out and played some real inspired volleyball.” It will be real important for the Ladies to maintain focus and take things one game at a time. “If we can stay focused and improve our serve reception and serving percentages then we should be okay by the time the second round starts.”

Lady Lions v. Canyon
The Lady Lions traveled to Canyon last week for their third district contest. They showed constant improvement throughout the match yet came out on the short end by scores of 10-25, 14-25 and 18-25.
“We started off pretty slow and picked up our play as the match went along,” Coach Jeff Witte said. Canyon provides one of the toughest environments to play in as they always have a big crowd that is very supportive of their volleyball team.
“After studying the film and letting the girls watch it, it was obvious that we need to improve in two big areas,” Witte said. “We emphasize that we want our passers on serve reception to get their pass inside the ten foot line where our setters should be able to handle it. We did this as a team only forty percent of the time. Our setters also had a difficult night handling the passes we did get inside the ten foot line as they only set forty three percent of those in a position that our hitters could get a good swing at the ball. This all led to us hitting a lot of free balls over the net which the Cougarettes took advantage of with some outstanding kills of their own.”
The Lady Lions were led offensively by Camille Clay with five kills followed by Brianna Hinnenkamp with four kills. Shelby Henrichs and Meredith Moore each had five assists. Brianna led the defensive effort with eight digs, followed by Ashley Johnson with five. Meredith, Ashley Moore, Kelly Witte and Jenee Clay each had three digs. Kelly led the blocking effort with 5.5 blocks.
“The Lady Lions have definitely been through the toughest part of their district schedule, having played the three teams that are regarded as the top three teams right off the bat.” Witte said. “It will be important to watch how the Ladies respond to this adversity in the coming district games as they try to keep their focus.”
(Courtesy of Jeff Witte)