The Lady Bears opened their season Monday night, Aug. 29, against the Fordland Lady Eagles.
The JV started the night off with a two-set win over Fordland with a winning score of 25-19 and 25-16. Strong serving was the key to the victory as well as good communication between players, according to Coach Sarah Lemons.
Glenda Haden led the team in aces with two and Darian Bushong was the team’s most consistent server being 10-for-10.
The varsity team also claimed their first victory of the season against the Lady Eagles with scores of 25-21 and 25-19.
The Lady Bears struggled at times with first game jitters but were able to tough out the win with good serving and consistent hitting.
Ava had three servers with two aces apiece, Lauren Patton, Cori Dry and Bethany Horn. The Lady Bears also had 15 kills for the night: Jorie Garrett had eight, Erica Croney added four, Emily Sterling had two and Cori Dry added one of her own.
The Lady Bears dropped their second game of the season to Springfield Catholic. The freshmen girls started off the evening with a tough loss at 19-25 and 24-26. Jessie Davis and Camie Goossen were the top servers for the night. Davis was 5-for-5 serving with two aces and Goossen was 7-for-9 with four aces.
The JV also dropped both sets to the Lady Irish by scores of 14-25 and 17-25. Inconsistent passing really hurt the team as well as missed serves.
Glenda Haden led the team in aces with three and Courtney Mings added two aces and also led the team in assists with 15-for-15.
Alena Stokes was 5-for-6 in hitting and also had two blocks.
The varsity also lost both sets to a tough Springfield Catholic team, 20-25 and 15-25. The Lady Bears struggled with putting the ball away for kills and miscommunication among each other, Coach Lemons said.
Jorie Garrett led the team with seven kills, Bethany Horn had three, and Erica Croney and Emily Sterling had two each. Horn also led the team with two aces and Sterling added one ace as well.
The Ava Lady VolleyBears will host Marshfield tonight (Thursday) in freshman, junior varsity and varsity action, with the freshman match beginning at 5 p.m.
On Saturday, the Lady Bears will play in the annual Forsyth tournament.
