BANGS – In a battle of former district rivals, the Class 3A Early Lady Horns outlasted the now-Class 2A Bangs Lady Dragons in four sets, 25-18, 21-25, 26-24, 25-16 in Tuesday’s volleyball season opener for both squads.
“The girls came out and they fought,” said Early head coach Missy Vaughn. “They fought for every ball and every possession. There are things we’ve got to continue to work on and grow from, but this group is new and is still learning how to play with together. They’re still learning a new defense and a new offense, but overall they came out and competed.”
Bangs head coach Cheyenne Lovelady said of the setback, “We lost to Early, which is a downer, but honestly the way the girls played and the things I’m having them do, our goals are so much bigger than that. My girls are doing everything I asked them to do. Instead sending free balls making sure we got the point, we were focused on doing things right. We were focused on getting the pass to target, setting it up and making the play. By doing that, we’re going to be able to reach our long-term goals.”
The match swung in Early’s favor in the third set as Bangs was unable to hold a 14-11 advantage. The Lady Horns responded with an 8-1 run to seize a 19-15 lead. An ace by Trinity Torrez knotted the score at 14 and a block by Dakota Barksdale put the Lady Horns in front, 15-14.
Trailing 24-21 late, Bangs took advantage of an Early hitting error, followed by back-to-back kills by Neeley Bradley to draw even at 24. But the Lady Dragons suffered from some miscommunication on the offensive end, that led Early to tallying the next point. Matty Boswell then followed with a spike the Lady Dragons couldn’t get back over the net.
“Both teams played great, both came out and played every ball,” Vaughn said. “We just happened to have the right ball placement at the right time.”
Lovelady added, “Today the only thing that hurt us was our offensive mistakes. We’ve been working so much on passing and we finally got that down, but we’re still learning to connect with new setters that have never set before. Early was a pretty scrappy team and they just made less mistakes than we did.”
Leading the charge for Early were Boswell with seven kills, six digs and one ace; Averey Horton with six kills and two digs; Gabby Leal with five kills; Stoney Laughlin with three kills; Trinity Torrez with one kill, two aces and 22 assists; Madison Torrez with one kill and two digs; Jenna Hataway with two digs; and Dakota Barksdale with a pair of blocks.
Among the top standouts for Bangs, Bradley tallied six kills and eight digs; Jadyn Miller added five kills and eight digs; Emily Baker posted four kills; Raylee Hutchins and Julianna Ethridge chipped in eight and six digs, respectively; and Laynie Evans dished out eight assists.
Both Early (1-0) and Bangs (0-1) will be back in action at the Veribest tournament, which begins Friday.
