Sandiettes Storm past Lady Wolves
Grapeland Defeats San Augustine, 3-1
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
GRAPELAND – The Grapeland Sandiettes welcomed the San Augustine Lady Wolves to town on Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 5 for their last non-district volleyball match before the start of league play. The Sandiettes were hoping to end their non-conference schedule on a high note and did just that by defeating the Lady Wolves by a score of three sets to one (22-25, 25-17, 25-15 and 25-14).
The Sandiettes were a little sluggish as the match got underway and seemed to struggle with their communication in the first set. After knotting the score at 14 apiece, the Lady Wolves ripped off four unanswered points to take an 18-14 lead.
The Sandiettes came roaring back to cut the deficit to one at 19-20 and then again at 22-23. Grapeland simply ran out of gas in the first set as they lost by a score of 22-25.
The second set, however, was a different story. The Sandiettes found themselves in an early hole and trailed by a score of 1-3. Fortunately, Grapeland began to execute at the net as well as their service opportunities and stormed back to take a 10-7 lead.
After the Lady Wolves tied the score at 13, the Sandiettes went on a 7-0 run to take the lead at 20-13 and then held on to close out the set by a score of 25-17. The second set win knotted the match at one apiece and seemed to breathe new life into the home team.
As the third set began, the Sandiettes had the Lady Wolves on the ropes and raced out to a 9-3 lead. San Augustine battled back to cut the lead to 11-9. From that point on, the net play of Tatiyanna Bowie, Hannah Chipman and Teira Jones – along with a strong service game – allowed Grapeland to rattle off 10 of the next 11 points to take a commanding lead and coast to a third set win by a score of 25-15.
The fourth and final set of the match saw the Sandiettes fall behind early but come racing back to tie the set at eight. From there, it was all Grapeland as the Sandiettes took command of the set and went on to win the fourth set, 25-14. The fourth set win also gave the Sandiettes a 3-1 victory in the match.
After the two teams had left the court, Grapeland VB Coach Megan Simison commented on her team’s performance.
“It was a good win for us, tonight,” she said.
Commenting on the Sandiettes’ service game, Simison said the big leads the Sandiettes were able to attain in the third and fourth sets allowed the team to work on different plays.
“We typically have a lot of missed serves, so I told the girls to make sure they get two or three in and then start serving tough. I feel like that’s what they did and I’m hoping we can continue to serve as well as we did. We’ve lost a couple of games that we lost due to our serving. When they’re on, they’re on. We built up enough of a lead that we were able to try some special sets that we normally don’t do,” she said.
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].
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