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By Nolberto Waddell
The Hayden Lady Lobo volleyball team won two of their three matches last week to give them a four win and one loss record for the season. The Lady Lobo JV team kept their record perfect winning all three of their matches.
The Lady Lobo teams boarded the bus for the long trip to Ft. Thomas last Tuesday to take on the Lady Apaches returning home with two wins. The Lady Lobo JV swept the Lady Apache JV with the help of great serving from two of their players. In the first set, the Lady Apaches had a one point lead, 10 to 9, with Devin Estrada going to the service line putting the Lady Lobo JV ahead with her hard serves 17 to 11 when her service was broken. Both teams kept breaking each other’s service with Hayden finally winning 25 to 19 for a one game lead. With the help of great team play and defense, Karina Serrano stepped to the service line and hit for thirteen service point to easily defeat Ft Thomas 25 to 14 and a sweep of the match.
The varsity Lobos had a hard time with the Lady Apaches. In the first set, the Lady Lobos were on the wrong end of a 14 to 18 score and with Ft Thomas playing good volleyball it seemed like a loss for the Lobos. The Lobo team would not go down quietly! Behind the very good play of the Lobo team on the court, Demitria Boltarez stepped to the service line and delivered thirteen service points for a 25 to 18 Lady Lobo win in the first set. The Lobo team that won the first set never showed up for the second and third sets dropping the second set with a lopsided 8 to 25 score and had trouble with their serving in the third set dropping it 18 to 25 to trail the Apaches one set to two. The Lady Lobo team finally came together, played good volleyball to win the fourth set and in a fifth set that seemed like neither team wanted to get a service point in, the Lady Lobos finally pulled ahead to win 15 to 11 and take the match three games to two.
The Lady Lobos were on home court on Wednesday taking on the Superior Lady Panthers. The Lobo JV were on the court first winning the first set with great team play, team movement and all-around great team volleyball, 25 to 17. The Lady Panther JV would come on strong in the second set handing the Lady Lobo JV their first loss of a set with a 20 to 25 score to set up an exciting third set that would go into overtime. The third set was back and forth with the score 11 to 9 after the first round of serving. The next Lady Panther server put the Panthers ahead 11 to 13 sending Lainey Lopez to the service line to put the Lobos ahead 14 to 13 when her service was broken. With the broken service point putting the score at 14 to 14, the Lobo JV came on strong breaking the Panther serve and scored the winning point to remain undefeated with a 16 to 14 third set score.
The Lady Lobo varsity had little trouble with the Lady Panther varsity. Playing great team volleyball, moving, talking and some good play at the net, the Lady Lobos swept the Panthers 25 to 16, 25 to 11 and 25 to 14 to remain undefeated for the season.
The next match would be a tough assignment for the Lobos traveling to Miami High School to take on the always hard playing, hard spiking Lady Vandal team. The Lady Lobo JV team kept their record perfect winning their match against the Vandal JV two sets to one. The Vandal JV came on strong in the first set handing the Lobo JV a 19 to 25 defeat. The Lady Lobo came back strong in the second set playing hard offense and strong defense to hand the Vandal JV a lopsided 25 to 10 defeat to tie the match at a set apiece. In the third set, the Lady Lobo JV came out fast taking a commanding 10 to 3 lead after two servers but after the fast start neither team was very successful in landing their serves with the Lobos hanging on to defeat the Vandal JV 15 to 11 to remain undefeated in their five matches.
The Varsity match between the Lobos and Vandals turned out to be very exciting with both teams playing great volleyball. The teams had some long volleys in the first set with the score going back and forth but the spiking of the Vandals finally took over to hand the Lobos an 18 to 25 loss. The Lady Lobo team came back in the second set breaking every service attempt of the Vandals taking a 14 to 13 lead after the first round of serving. Starting the second round, Cassie Smith went to the service line, hit ten straight service points to lead the Lady Lobos to a 25 to 13 win to tie the match at one set apiece. An embarrassed Lady Vandal team came back strong in the third set quickly breaking every serve by the Lobos to hand the Lady Lobos a lopsided 11 to 25 loss. The fourth set was very exciting if your team wore green and black. With the score tied at 15 apiece, the Lady Lobo team worked hard behind the serving of Demitia Boltarez to take a commanding 21 to 15 lead and seemed on their way to a win but the Vandals would have no part of it turning their game up a couple of notches and came roaring back to hand the Lobos a disappointing 24 to 26 loss to take the match three sets to one and hand the Lady Lobo varsity their first loss of the season to drop their record to four wins against one loss.
Despite the loss the Lady Lobos played hard and did not go down easily giving the talented Vandal team all they could handle. They will practice hard and will regroup getting ready for next week’s matches taking on the San Manuel Lady Miners on the Lobo Gym court on Wednesday with the Lobo JV on the court at 5 p.m. with the varsity playing twenty minutes after the JV. The Lobo volleyball team will board the bus again on Thursday for a trip to Globe High School to take on the Lady Tigers with the JV on the court at 5 p.m. and the varsity match following. After a one day rest, the Lobo varsity will be on the road again traveling to Florence High School on Saturday, Sept. 17, to play in the Florence Invitational Volleyball Tournament. Game times for the tournament were not available.
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