Facing Class 6A competition is always a challenge, especially for a volleyball team with a brand new coach and less than a handful of players with varsity experience from a season ago. Still, teams rarely improve by playing opponents beneath team, and the Brownwood Lady Lions learned plenty of lessons during Tuesday’s 25-11, 25-11, 25-12 loss to San Angelo Central at Warren Gym.
“I was really proud of the girls,” said Lady Lions first-year head coach Cheyanne Lovelady. “But we talked after the game and one of the things I was most upset with was our lack of communication. We had a lot of communication errors and we haven’t made communicating a habit yet, they’re not used to that. If we could have fixed that, we would have had a lot closer games.”
Tuesday’s match also marked the first in front of the home crowd for the Lady Lions, and Lovelady felt the team battled some jitters throughout the evening.
“There were some nerves, but for the most part they did what I asked,” Lovelady said. “They came out and you can tell they’re excited to be a Lady Lion. They stepped up and played with excitement even if they had a little bit of nerves.”
Offensively for the Lady Lions, Aubrie Felux led the attack with seven kills followed by Jaslin Jones with four, and Aniah Hines, Hannah Deen, Miranda Northcutt and Trinity Roberts with one apiece.
Emma Ringer dished out 10 assists while Ariseli Hernandez and Northcutt each contributed one.
Felux and Deen served Brownwood’s two aces.
On the defensive end, Deen logged a team-best nine digs trailed by Molly Oliver with eight, Ringer with seven, Felux with six, Northcutt with three, Jones with two, and Hernandez, Jeniffer Romero, Chloe Walls and Icess Hall with one each.
At the net, Roberts notched a pair of blocks and Northcutt chipped in one.
In the first set, the Lady Lions jumped out to a quick 5-2 lead, but Central reeled off five straight points to seize the advantage. Central gradually extended its lead and scored 11 of the last 13 points.
The second set featured an early 2-1 edge for Brownwood, but Central fired off the next eight points. The Lady Lions regrouped late and were able to tally three of the final four points in the set.
The finale saw a tie score at 4 before Central went on a spurt of 13 unanswered points. Brownwood answered with its best performance of the night, notching seven of 10 points to trim the deficit to 20-11 before Central finished off the victory.
“They didn’t give up and fought until the end, it didn’t matter what the score was, and they were learning until the very last point,” Lovelady said.
The Lady Lions (2-7) will kick off play in the Glen Rose tournament on Friday with four pool matches against West at 10 a.m., Granbury NCTA at 2 p.m., Liberty Hill at 4 p.m., and Denton at 5 p.m. Brownwood will then compete in bracket play on Saturday.
“I want to see a lot more communication and better anticipation,” Lovelady said of the weekend goals. “Sometimes we still get stuck in transition watching the ball.”
