Zachary volleyball, East Ascension wage five set war on the court – The Advocate

The Zachary High gym was the site of an extremely competitive match on Sept. 13 between the homestanding ZHS Lady Broncos (1-1) and the East Ascension Lady Spartans (2-1).

In a game scheduled only the week before due to hurricane issues, the two teams fought through almost five hours of freshman, junior varsity and varsity games.

The Lady Broncos freshmen fell in the opener (25-12 and 25-18). The junior varsity came firing on all cylinders with a 25-14 first-set win and, after falling behind 6-9 in the second set, fought for a 25-23 second-set victory.

Fighting back was the story for the varsity game as well. In the first set, neither team could separate until senior Kyra Woods serves and consecutive spikes by senior Lillian Talbot gave the Lady Broncos an early 8-5 lead.

The Lady Spartans fought back and tied the score before a huge block by senior Jules Patin ended the run. The remainder of the set was closely fought with ties at 18, 20 and 24 before the Lady Broncos finally took the set on a serve by senior Audrey Poche.

In the second set, East Ascension ran out to a 3-0 lead before Patin worked the court for several service winners to put the Lady Broncos up 4-3. Similar to the first set, the Lady Broncos played from behind but not too far behind, never falling by more than five points.

Once the Lady Spartans reached 18 points, the Lady Broncos turned up the intensity again and took their first lead on a spike by Talbot. The Lady Broncos went down again (24-21) but found a little more in the tank as Poche served out a second set victory (26-24).

Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today.

We were up two sets to zero, and we were just not able to bring it home. We struggled to finish," coach Cheri Perry said.

The third set was similar to the first two, with the Lady Broncos playing from behind for most of the game before tying the score at 26 in yet another white-knuckle set. EA turned the tables and pick up a 28-28 win.

We made a lot of errors back to back, which allowed EA to gain momentum, Perry said.

The Lady Broncos fell behind early (9-18) in the fourth set and were not able to close the gap, losing 15-25.

We made some good thing happen. We have to learn to focus on what we did good as opposed to thinking about a mistake we made five points ago, Perry said.

Service errors in the fifth set denied the Lady Broncos a victory (8-15). Perry put the game in perspective when she said, Although the loss was frustrating, at this point, we dont lose; we learn. This is even more true as the season is young, and district does not start for another two weeks.

The Lady Broncos will be back home for district games against Baton Rouge High on Sept. 28; Denham Springs on Oct. 12; and Central on Oct. 21.

See the article here:

Zachary volleyball, East Ascension wage five set war on the court - The Advocate