The W.S. Neal Lady Eagle JV team picked up their first win of the season Tuesday at Central of Florida while the varsity Lady Eagles remained winless as they took a loss.
The JV Lady Eagles improved to 1-1 this season with a 2-0 win over Central. W.S. Neal’s JV team won set one 25-23 and took set two 25-13.
“The JV really stepped up their play from last week versus Jay,” W.S. Neal head coach Jason Blaney said. “We started the first set with Donnavia Williams serving eight service points in a row including two aces. In the second set we had Tiffany Robinson serve off 10 in a row including multiple aces. The whole JV team played well as a whole. The service game was so much better and that is something we really have emphasized at practice, especially since Jay. We are also had some great passes and sets.”
In the varsity game, the Lady Eagles of East Brewton lost 3-1. The loss dropped W.S. Neal to 0-2 this season in Blaney’s first year.
W.S. Neal lost set one 25-14 before evening the match at 1-1 with a 25-23 win in set two. From there it was all Central as they took set three 25-22 and set four 25-20 to get the win.
“It took them about a set to kind of wake up, but once they did, the varsity played really well,” Blaney said. “The difference from last week to this week was tremendous and that is what we want as we head into the season. Every game should be better than the game before and I am very proud for the way they fought. I am disappointed in the loss, but our girls did not just give it to them. Central is a very good team and we gave them a heck of a fight. We had tremendous hustle out there, which really excites me as we progress into the season. We still have to work on receiving of serve to become more consistent and utilize our greatest weapons, which is our attack. Our serve also let us down towards the end, which really surprised me, but we will have that fixed very quickly.”
As a team W.S. Neal ended the night with 18 kills with Jasmine Crook having eight of those. Jodi Busby had five kills.
W.S. Neal will be back in action in their first home game of the 2013 season Tuesday, Sept. 10 when they host Hillcrest. Game time is set for 4 p.m. with the JV team playing first followed by the varsity at 5 p.m.