Lady Blues open season with loss to Holliday News Staff Fri, 08/16/2024 - 9:38 am
(TC GORDON | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Graham senior Lillian Noble (left) and junior Rylee Moore (right) jump together for a block attempt at the net during the team’s match Tuesday, Aug. 13 against Holliday. The Lady Blues took a 3-1 loss in their first game of the season. 
(TC GORDON | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Senior Lillian Noble (middle) bumps a ball to a teammate while fellow senior Braylee Mayes (left) and sophomore Katie McGehee (right) watch. The Lady Blues lost 3-1 to Holliday in their first game of the season Tuesday, Aug. 13. 
(TC GORDON | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Lady Blues senior Braylee Mayes fires a shot over the net looking for a point during Graham’s first game of the season Tuesday, Aug. 13 against Holliday. The Lady Blues fought hard but lost 3-1. 
(TC GORDON | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Lady Blues senior Annemarie McHenry tosses the ball into the air and prepares to serve it during Graham’s first game of the season against Holliday. The Lady Blues played a tough game but lost 3-1 this past Tuesday, Aug. 13. 
(TC GORDON | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Graham sophomore Katie McGehee sets a ball for one of her teammates while teammate senior Lillian Noble looks on during the Lady Blues’ first match of the season Tuesday, Aug. 13 against Holliday. 
(TC GORDON | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Graham junior Kaden Atwood (7) sets a ball for a teammate during the team’s match against Holliday this past Tuesday, Aug. 13. The Lady Blues lost 3-1. 
(TC GORDON | THE GRAHAM LEADER) The Graham Lady Blues cheer together as a team before the start of their 2024 season. The team faced Holliday in their season opener but took a 3-1 loss Tuesday, Aug. 13.
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TC Gordon sports@grahamleader.com
Energy is a vital element to a volleyball team, but the Lady Blues may have had just a bit too much of it during their season opening game.
Multiple small errors and a bit too much juice on some of the team’s hits and serves led to Graham ending up with a loss to the Holliday Lady Eagles by a score of 3-1.
The Lady Blues (0-1) struggled in the opening minutes of the game as the high energy that comes with the first game of the season led to a few long hits and powerful shots that found the net rather than the opponent’s side of the court.
Momentum was key in this game and the Lady Eagles (1-0) held most of it throughout the four-set match. Graham had a number of excellent plays for points, but those were usually sandwiched around multiple Holliday points as well.
“I thought we had some really good plays,” head coach Marci Faulk said. “I just talked to the girls, and I told them we just have to string more of those together. It seemed like we would have one great, stellar, amazing play, then we might have two errors, and then we'd go back to something amazing.”
Holliday controlled the lead for most of the first set until Graham tied things at 12-12 on a block from senior Lillian Noble. The two teams tied things up again at 16-16 before the visitors began to pull away.
The Lady Blues kept things close, but Holliday ended up winning the first set 25-21.
The start of the second set followed a similar script as the first. The Lady Eagles took an early lead before the Lady Blues found their footing and tied things at 5-5. But over the next few minutes, Holliday powered a 6-point run before senior Braylee Mayes slammed down a kill.
Mayes and Noble, two of Graham’s six seniors on the roster, led the offensive charge for their team in this game. The two Lady Blues combined for 27 kills — 14 for Noble and 13 for Mayes. However, the difficulties with serve-receive and setting made things difficult for the offense as a whole to get going.
“We talked a lot about not scoring for the other team, like giving them the easy points. Things that were in our control we should have handled a little bit better, because sooner or later, those are going to flip that momentum to their side,” Faulk said. “We need to keep momentum, limit our errors to one, go back and terminate quick so that momentum stays on our side.”
Graham, once again, trailed for most of the second set. But the Lady Blues figured some things out and fought back. The two teams tied at 23-23 late in the frame after Holliday hit a ball long out of bounds.
On the next ball, Mayes leapt up at the net for a huge block to put Graham up 24-23. After a Holliday timeout and a long rally with multiple saves from both sides, Lady Blues junior Kaden Atwood surprised everyone with a soft toss into no-man’s land on the second hit to secure the set win for Graham 25-23, which caused the entire gym to erupt—at least on Graham’s side.
With the match tied 1-1, the Lady Blues looked to build off that momentum. But the visiting Lady Eagles locked in and maintained control the rest of the way.
Holliday led off the third set with five straight points and Graham never tied or led in that set. The visitors went on to win 25-17 as the teams moved to the fourth set.
In the fourth set the Lady Blues fought back in the beginning. With Holliday leading early, Graham scored on a kill from Noble, a block from senior Annemarie McHenry and eventually tied things at 7-7.
The Lady Blues couldn’t get over the hump as Holliday began to pull away again thanks to multiple scoring runs. After a Graham timeout with the Lady Eagles leading 20-14, Mayes fired a kill and Atwood served up an ace, but Holliday ended up taking the set 25-19.
“Not the way you want to start your season, but we can only go up,” Faulk said. “...Don't get down and out over this one game. Let's fix the mistakes and move on. It's early, a lot of volleyball left to play.”
Subvarsity Results
JV lost 2-0 (25-22, 25-16)
Freshmen lost 2-0 (25-17, 25-19)
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