After losing nine straight games, the Lady Rams varsity volleyball team pulled out a win at home versus the Eastside Lady eagles, making it their second win, and second home win of the season.
Senior Ajah Wilson had the first kill score of the night and chipped in two more points with unassisted attack scores during the first game. Wilson also had a nice block that resulted in a score as well. Sophomore Alyssa Norton came up big in the first match scoring six times off of unassisted kill attacks from the middle block and right hitter positions. Three of Alyssa’s scores were blocks that she won at the top of the net as the Eastside Lady Eagles seemed to have no answer for her.
Senior Aasha Kennedy’s first serve was an ace and she scored twice more with a kill and block score at the net in the first game. With the Lady Rams showing high energy early, the Lady Eagles held their own, and even tied it up at 24 before the Lady Rams scored the last 2 points on errors by the Lady Eagles. Final for game one was 26-24.
Game number two was a different story as the Lady Eagles came out on fire catching the Lady Rams off-guard and seemingly rattled their front line as they couldn’t handle the serve several times. At one point, the Lady Eagles scored 12 points in a row before the streak was stopped. Kennedy assisted Wilson with a score on a kill attack and Norton scored on kill shots as well. The Lady Rams were riddled with errors though, both from returning and serving. The Lady Eagles took advantage of the quickest game of the night and won 25-7.
Game number three was more of the normal as the Lady Rams started strong once again. Wilson scores with a kill shot that got the Lady rams excited again. Like the first match, it was close throughout with the Lady Rams leading most of the session. Senior Jakara George scored twice on kill shots, and senior Traleea Jones scored on an attack and served an ace.
Norton had another big block for a score and added another score before the match was over. But the match was best for sophomore Angel Durrette. Durrette’s first serve was an ace, and she added 3 more scores on attacks and kill shots.
The Lady Eagles scored mostly on the Lady Rams’ errors once again, but they had seemed to figure out how to play the net better versus the Lady Rams’ front line. The Lady Eagles gained momentum, but the Lady Rams refused to give away the game, and scored the last 2 points once again and won the match 25-23.
Match four was dominated by Norton, and the Lady Rams, eho for most of the session, cruised. Traleea Jones’ first serve was an ace. She added two more scores in the session as well. Norton started with a kill shot at the net and followed it up serving with an ace.
Norton did struggle at times in previous games in this match with serving, but that all changed. She served six aces in a row before the Lady Eagles responded. The Lady Eagles had seven errors on returns by the time the score was 8-6. They continued to struggle with 4 more return errors and couldn’t stop the momentum. They were briefly helped by errors on the part of the Lady Rams, but it wasn’t enough.
Kennedy added another kill shot before the match was over, and the Lady Rams won the match 25-16. They win the match 3-1 and snapped the nine-game losing streak.
In speaking of this win, the brief words of Lady Rams’ coach Shandel Carter, “We needed it,” really sums up the feeling around the team. The Lady Rams will be in McDonough, Georgia to play the Ola High school Lady Mustangs October 1 at 5:30 p.m. in a non-conference matchup.
