SLIDELL — Varnado’s young team struggled against First Baptist Christian School on Tuesday in a 25-6, 25-3, 25-5 loss in a District 7-V match on the road.
“While I am disappointed that we played so poorly (Tuesday), we are rebuilding our team after graduating seven senior starters last year,” Varnado coach Karen Borden said. “This year’s players are brand new and were forced to start practice late in the season due to our gymnasium being refloored. Also, my tallest, most athletic players are actually seventh and eighth graders with no volleyball experience at all except in their relatives’ backyards. I am determined to let every practicing player on the court at sometime during a match and this will lead to some disappointments until we are better able to work out our team starters.”
First Baptist did a solid job with its serving, which was accurate for most of the match, and helped lead to several aces.
The Lady Eagles tallied the match’s first three points, as Katelin LaFollette had an ace to open the contest. Varnado got on the board on a serve that was out of bounds.
First Baptist took added two to its lead to go up 5-1 before Varnado trimmed it to 5-2.
The Lady Eagles then went on a 5-0 run, as Brianna Dukes tallied four consecutive aces after First Baptist broke serve.
A serve out of bounds made it 10-3.
First Baptist added two more to the lead before Varnado tallied to make it 12-4.
From there, the Lady Eagles continued to make their way to 25. They had a 6-0 run. Varnado scored to make it 18-5. First Baptist made it 20-5, but Varnado tallied again, getting it to 20-6 before the Lady Eagles closed out the game with a 5-0 run, as LaFollette finished the contest with three straight aces in the 25-6 contest.
First Baptist tallied to open the second game before Varnado tied the game 1-1. The Lady Eagles then ran off nine in a row to take a 10-1 lead. Madelyn Jennings recorded six aces during the run, including four straight at one point.
After Varnado broke serve, the Lady Eagles had a 6-0 run, followed by a 9-0 run to end the game at 25-3. During the 9-0 spurt, Olivia Gaudin had five aces.
The third game got off to a rough start for Varnado, as First Baptist scored the first six points to begin.
Varnado did a nice job of keeping the ball alive several times on the third point before losing a long rally.
Varnado scored to make it 6-1. First Baptist got the serve back on a Varnado serve that hit the net and the Lady Eagles extended the lead to 11-1, as Sadie Snider ran off four straight aces before one went out of bounds to make it 11-2.
First Baptist added six more to its lead until a serve out of bounds trimmed it to 17-3.
First Baptist ended the match on an 8-2 run in the 25-5 win.