BANGS – Coming off a three-set loss at Albany Saturday, the Bangs Lady Dragons rebounded with a 25-18, 25-12, 25-9 home victory over Coleman Tuesday to land in the win column for the first time in District 6-2A volleyball action this season.
“We were searching for that first district win after getting beat by Albany the other day, and there was a lot more communication which is something we’ve been talking about all week,” said Bangs interim coach Tamara Minshew. “We watched some film on Coleman so we knew what we needed to do, and the girls executed the way we asked them to. They played really well. A few things didn’t go our way but they fixed things immediately and didn’t let Coleman go on any big runs. That was big because we haven’t been doing that.”
Bangs recorded 15 service aces in the match as three each came from Neeley Bradley, Jadyn Miller and Cloey Petty. Kasey Solis and Ava Boren each served a pair and Julianna Ethridge and Dyan McCurdy added one apiece.
Miller also finished with a team-high 11 kills followed by Bradley with five; Solis with four; Boren, Emily Baker and Raylee Hutchins with two apiece; and McCurdy with one.
Bradley dished out a team-best 12 assists trailed by Joey Newton with six; Boren and Solis with two each; and Hutchins and Baker both tallied one.
On the defensive end, Miller also notched a team-best seven digs followed by Bradley and Julianna Ethridge with six each; Boren with five; Petty with four; and Baker with three.
At the net, Solis registered both of Bangs’ blocks.
As for what Minshew was most pleased with from the Lady Dragons, she said, “The communication was better, and the serving was better. We didn’t have near as many serve errors as we’ve been having, and we finished with the 15 aces. We also did a good job of placing ball, trying to hit it in the gaps and the holes and not just swinging blindly.”
During the first set against Coleman (1-1 in district), which was coming off a victory over Ranger in its league opener Saturday, the Lady Dragons led 4-3 when Petty served eight consecutive points that allowed Bangs to pull away. During that stretch, Solis and Miller recorded kills and Petty logged a pair of aces.
Leading 12-4, the Lady Dragons witnessed Coleman rally to within 22-17, but after a Bangs timeout a 3-1 spurt ended the set for the victorious home team.
Bangs got off a faster start in the second set with four of the first five points as the set began with an ace from Bradley. Leading 10-7 thanks to a kill from Baker, Bangs followed with seven of the next eight points to open a comfortable 17-8 advantage. Solis and Hutchins recorded kills during the surge, while Coleman assisted with a few unforced errors.
The last set featured an opening 7-0 run for Bangs as Coleman never threatened. The lead hit double figures at 13-3 on another kill from Miller and continued to grow until McCurdy’s kill finished the match.
Bangs (12-10, 1-1) is back in 6-2A action at noon Saturday at Hawley.
