BANGS – It was neither easy nor pretty, but the Bangs Lady Dragons survived another roller coaster ride Friday night to claim their first volleyball victory of the season.
After losing a pair of two sets to one leads in losses at Coleman and Junction last week, Bangs avoided a trifecta with a 25-14, 21-25, 25-22, 24-26, 15-13 triumph over the Class A Evant Lady Elks.
“I’m proud of the good things the girls did,” said Lady Dragons second-year head coach Cheyanne Lovelady. “I’m proud of the things that we are learning and we’re adjusting to, we are doing good some things. But we’re also doing bad things at the wrong time. Being able to do the things that we’re learning and to do them from the beginning of the game all the way to the end and never fall off, never stop doing those positive things, if we do that then we can have a lot more wins.”
Bangs cruised to an 11-point victory in the opening set and appeared on the verge of capturing the second with a 21-17 advantage. Instead, Evant reeled off eight consecutive points and pulled even at one set apiece.
The Lady Dragons again reclaimed the momentum in the third set with a three-point victory, though Evant rallied from 19-13 down to pull even at 20 at one point.
Leading 24-14 in the fourth set, Bangs looked as if it would wrap up the win in four sets. However, the Lady Elks fired off 12 straight points to steal a 26-24 victory that forced the tiebreaking fifth set.
“There was a lot stuff that was going wrong, it wasn’t one specific thing,” Lovelady said of the second and fourth set collapses. “Either our passing seemed off and our hitters were doing better, or our hitters couldn’t put the ball away and our passes were on. I think just having that mental toughness of being able to say ‘we’re going to stop the ball right now, we’re going to get out of this and will ourselves forward,’ we just get stuck and get passive about it.”
In the final set, it seemed as if the match again may slip away from the Lady Dragons, who faced a 12-7 deficit. But behind the stellar play at the net of Maggie Morales and a crucial serve by Madi Martin, Bangs tallied eight of the final nine points to grab a two-point victory.
“Whenever I called a timeout (down 12-7 in the fifth set) I made the girls put smiles on their faces and I told them that there’s no pressure, just go out there and do your best,” Lovelady said. “I think whenever the stands started getting excited for them and the girls started getting excited and started playing to have fun, they played a lot better.”
Morales recorded three kills in succession to pull Bangs even at 12. Evant regained a 13-12 lead but another kill from Morales knotted the score at 13. Martin served the go-ahead ace for a 14-13 edge, and a block by Morales sealed the victory.
“This is the best game I’ve seen Maggie play since I’ve been here,” Lovelady said. “She really had to take on that role that some other girls had last year and really made a leader of herself today.”
Morales finished with 18 kills and only two hitting errors, Halle Lance served four aces, and Skylar Hutchins recorded 41 digs.
Bangs (1-3) seeks its second win in a row Saturday as it ventures to Hawley for an 11 a.m. match.
“I want to see consistency tomorrow,” Lovelady said. “I want to see the girls come out and start strong and play the whole game consistently, no roller coasters, no positive then negative. I want to see consistency across the board and I want us to be able to communicate and play as a unit.”
