Lady Lions victorious in home opener

Staff photo by Dustin Sullivan
Senath-Hornersville's Jami Jackson spikes the ball past the Portageville blocker during the Lady Lions' win in their home opener on Tuesday night.

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The first set was highlighted by an early 12-0 lead for the Lady Lions, with senior Natalie Bibbs serving for 12-straight points to open the set.

In the second set, the Lady Lions held an 11-2 lead before Portageville pulled to within five points at 17-12. Lions' head coach Lori Hoffmann then called a time-out to compose her team and after the time-out, Senath-Hornersville was able to score eight points to secure the second set and the victory, moving them to 2-0 on the season.

Staff photo by Dustin SullivanSenath-Hornersville's Kimberly Dunivan sends the ball back over to the Portageville side during the Lady Lions' junior varsity loss to Portageville on Tuesday night.

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Hoffman said that by opening the first set with a 12-0 lead, her team gained a lot of momentum that carried her team throughout the rest of the game. "I couldn't have asked for a better start than that," Hoffman said. "A lot of people out there think that the underhand serve isn't as strong as the overhand, but Natalie showed tonight that someone that serves underhand can be capable of scoring more points on serve than someone who only scores five points a night on their overhand serve."

One of the keys to the Lady Lions' win tonight was the front row play of Bibbs and fellow senior Jami Jackson. Jackson led the team with 10 kills against Portageville along with Bibbs contributing five for the Lady Lions. Both girls also led the team in blocks on the night.

Hoffman commended those two on their strong play at the net throughout the night. "Natalie and Jami's play on the front row made all the difference for us tonight," Hoffman said. "Portageville had some girls that could really hit the ball hard from the net and if those two hadn't played so well at the front, then we would have had a hard time keeping them from scoring."

Earlier in the evening, the Lady Lions' junior varsity team fell in defeat to Portageville in three sets, 25-27, 25-20 and 19-25.

The Lady Lions will be back in action this Friday as they travel to Southland.

Kennett 2, Dexter 1

The Kennett Lady Indians' volleyball team, after falling in the first set, pulled off a great win against the Dexter Bearcats in a very close game to move to 2-0 on the season.

Kennett lost the first set 20-25, but then won the second and third sets by the scores of 26-24 and 25-23, respectfully.

Kennett head coach Laura Ort said that this was a great win to get, along with being an exciting game for the home fans to experience.

"It's been at least five years since Kennett has defeated Dexter," Ort said. "We have come close on several occasions, but tonight we got the job done. This game was a testament to the word 'team'. There wasn't a superstar that shined for us tonight, just a bunch of girls playing the game because they love it and they want to succeed and win.

Ort also praised her team's effort to play as a team and work towards earning a big win. "Throughout the night, those girls pick each other up and worked as a team the entire game," Ort said. I cannot say enough about how proud I am to be a part of this group of young ladies and this school."

Ort also said that they crowd was great throughout the evening and provided her team with the support they needed to get the win against Dexter.

Kennett's Morgan Pickens led the team with eight kills while Audrey Wynne was right behind her with seven.

Mackenzie Carr let the Indians with 10 digs, while Jade Caldwell put up 17 assists to lead the team in that category.

The Lady Indians will be back in action this Thursday as they host Charleston with the first match of the evening starting at 6 p.m.