The Ava Lady Bears traveled to Marshfield last Thursday to take on the Lady Jays in volleyball action. The Lady Bears played well, but weren’t able to pull out a victory in any match.
The freshmen lost their match with a final score of 16-25 and 11-25. The JV took the Lady Jays to three sets with the scores being 15-25, 26-24 and 10-25 in the third set.
The varsity team dropped their game to the Lady Jays as well. The Lady Bears dropped the first set 21-25. The Bears fought back to win the second set 25-20 but couldn’t seal up the victory in the third set where they lost 23-25.
Samantha Martin and Emily Sterling were perfect for serving with Martin serving 16-for-16 with three aces, and Sterling being 11-for-11.
Jorie Garrett led the team in blocks and kills with 28 blocks and 22 kills. Emily Petty led the team in assists with 28.
The Lady Bears traveled to Forsyth this past Saturday to compete in their first tournament of the season, and came home with the championship trophy.
The Lady Bears took on Blue Eye in the first round of pool play, and ended up with a win, the final scores being 25-13 and 25-23. Sterling had three aces, Garrett led the team in kills with 14. Sterling and Martin also added four kills of their own.
Petty contributed 23 assists and Lindsey Armour led the team in passes with 21-for-24.
Next, the Lady Bears took on Conway which would be a preview for the championship match later in the day. The Bears beat Conway in two sets 25- 22 and 25-14. The team only missed three of 47 serves the entire match which helped lead to the victory.
Once again, Garrett led the team in kills with 14 and Sterling was right behind her with seven. Petty led the team with 11 assists and Bethany Horn also contributed one assist.
Abby Dean led the team in serve receive passing with 13-for-14 and Armour was a close second with 9-for-10.
After the Conway match the Lady Bears took on their final team in pool play when they took on Bradleyville. The Bears won the match by identical scores of 25-10.
Bethany Horn led the team in kills with five, Kristen Hastings was close behind with three. Sterling, Petty and Cori Dry each contributed with two kills apiece. Garrett led the team with eight assists and Martin had four.
The Lady Bears finished first in their pool and took on Willow Springs in the semi-final match, in which the Ava Bears won 25- 20 and 25-16 allowing the Ava Lady Bears to move on into the championship match.
Once again, serving played a huge part in the success. The entire team only missed five serves out of 48 attempted, and Martin led the team at 9-for-9. Garrett and Martin were the kill leaders for the match with 11 and five, respectively.
Armour and Dean were the dig leaders with Armour being 23-for-28 and Dean being 22-for-26. Bethany Horn and Dean also contributed two kills. Petty was the assist and ace leader for the team with two aces and 17 assists.
The Lady Bears had to take on Conway again for the championship game.
The Lady Bears sealed up the victory in two sets with a group effort by the whole team. The final scores were 25-20 and 25-15.
The Lady Bears were once again almost perfect for serving, the whole team only missed three serves out of 49.
Garret led the team in kills with 10, Sterling had 8, Martin had 5 and both Dean and Horn contributed 2. Even though the team didn’t have a great passing game the team really pulled together to end the tournament without dropping a set.
The Lady Bears improved their record to 8-1 and take on Forsyth at home Thursday with the freshmen game starting at 5 o’clock.
The varsity girls will be in the Cabool Tournament on Saturday, and the teams will play at Fordland on Sept. 20.
