Grapeland VB Drops Home Opener in 3
Sandiettes Fall to Lady Trojans 25-15, 25-23, 25-9
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
GRAPELAND – After several road scrimmages in their first week, the Grapeland Sandiettes returned home to open their 2021 volleyball season against the Coldspring-Oakhurst Lady Trojans.
The Sandiettes just missed the playoffs last season but showed quite a bit of promise towards the end of the year. Competing in District 21-2A, Grapeland will take on the Cayuga Lady Wildcats, the Frankston Maidens, the Kerens Lady Bobcats, the Cross Roads Lady Bobcats, the Neches Lady Tigers, the Oakwood Lady Panthers and the Trinidad Lady Trojans during district play.
Prior to league action, however, the Sandiettes will be on the road throughout the remainder of the month and will return home in September for a match against the North Zulch Lady Bulldogs.
Back to the matter at hand. The season opener saw the Sandiettes trying to work the kinks out after only a week of practice and the girls showed they have quite a bit of talent as they pushed the Class 3A Lady Trojans to the limit on more than one occasion.
Unfortunately for the home team, their visitors from Coldspring-Oakhurst simply had too much firepower for the Grapeland girls as they fell by a final score of 25-15, 25-23 and 25-9.
In the first set, the Lady Trojans opened up an early 6-4 lead over the Sandiettes and pushed it to 13-5 before Coach Trina Pierce called a timeout to give her team time to regroup. The TO seemed to work as Grapeland slowly began to cut into the Coldspring lead and only trailed 19-15, when the Lady Trojans were forced to call a TO.
That was as close as Grapeland would get in the first set as Coldspring went on a 6-0 lead to close out the first set by a score of 25-15.
The second set, however, saw the Sandiettes showcase their abilities as they led through much of the early going. Grapeland opened up an 8-4 lead before Coldspring reeled them back in to go up by one with the score 10-9.
As the set continued, the Lady Trojans opened up a four-point margin before the Sandiettes came storming back to take a 20-19 lead. From there, the set was back and forth as neither team could pull away from the other until Coldspring eked out the second set by a score of 25-23.
While the second set highlighted the promise the Sandiettes have in going forward during 2021 season, the third set showed they still have some work to do.
Up by a count of 2 sets to 0, the Lady Trojans sensed victory was near as they jumped out to an early 6-4 lead. That, unfortunately, was as close the Sandiettes would get in the third set as Coldspring pushed the lead out to 10-5.
Grapeland took the next point to make it 10-6, but before they could even look up – it seemed like a buzzsaw hit the Sandiettes as the Lady Trojans rattled off seven straight points to take a 17-6 lead on their way to winning the third set by a score of 25-9 as they took the match 3-0.
The Sandiettes will be back in action this weekend as they travel to Franklin to play in the Franklin Tournament.
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].
