In their first area game Tuesday on the road at Thomasville, the W.S. Neal Lady Eagle volleyball picked up a win to improve their record to 3-3 overall and to 1-0 in area play.
Also Tuesday the JV team won 2-0 to pick up their first win this season and improve to 1-2.
The JV won 25-13 and 25-12.
In game one for the Lady Eagles, Ashley Fleming had three service points and Tiffany Sawyer had nine total points with eight straight.
Tykeria Nolan had four points and Cheyenne Jackson had one.
In game two for the JV, Fleming had two along with Destiney Salter, and Sawyer.
Nolan had five and Katelynn Millican added four. Jasmine Crook had one in the win.
In varsity action, the Lady Eagles won 3-2. W.S. Neal won game one 25-21 before losing game two 25-12 and game three 25-22 to trail 1-2 after three games. Needing to win their next two games to claim the win, W.S. Neal won game four 25-15 and game five 15-13 to get the win.
In the varsity game one, Gracee Dixon had two points and Paige Grantham had one. Ashlyn Lambeth had two points along with Lauren Boatwright and Kaitlin Hadaway had seven.
In game two, Kendal Clayton had two points. In game three, Dixon had one and Grantham had one followed by Lambeth with two, Boatwright with one and Hadaway with four.
In game four, Dixon had two followed by Grantham with eight points. Lambeth had one followed by Boatwright with four and Hadaway with two points.
In the final game five, Dixon had one along with Grantham, Boatwright and Hadaway. Lambeth had two.
“The JV came out playing hard and did a great job of getting their serves in,” W.S. Neal Lady Eagle head coach Jeff Haney said. “Tiffany Sawyer’s eight-point run in the first set gave us a good boost. We were able to not give them a bunch of points on the serves and just out play them. Tykeria Nolan did a great job setting and also did well at the net defensively. I’m extremely proud of the JV getting this win. They have worked hard at practice and continue to improve.”
Haney said the varsity game was a strange event.
“We came out in set one and played pretty well. I’m not sure what happened after that, but things went downhill rather quickly,” Haney said. “We played without much enthusiasm during set two and most of the third. We started showing signs of life again near the end of the third set. Set four was exactly what we needed. We played like we wanted to win and that carried on throughout the rest of the evening. I am very proud of the girls for starting out area play with a victory. They had to work for it against a Thomasville team that just wouldn’t quit. If we are to continue having success in these big games, we are going to have to find a way to be mentally prepared for the entire match and not just parts of it.”
The Lady Eagles will take on Flomaton at home Thursday at 4 p.m. with the middle school, JV and varsity playing.