Girls keep streak going, but lose to Benjamin
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lady Lions volleyball team avenged an early loss and pushed its winning streak to 16 matches with a pair of wins last week.
On Tuesday, Sept. 5, the Lady Lions (19-3) visited Benjamin for a rematch of their preseason scrimmage, losing 25-5, 25-17, 25-16. Details will be reported next week.
Lady Lions coach M.J. Reneau announced a scheduling change for this weekend.
“Tolar double-booked for Saturday, so we had to change that,” she said. “We’ve got X Academy coming to us at 4:30 p.m. Friday. That opens up the weekend for us.”
Reneau said the rare Saturday off will be a welcome break.
“I think that’s important at this point in the season,” she said. “Tournament season’s over. The girls can use this time to rest and regroup before we start district here in a couple of weeks.”
The girls will host Snyder on Tuesday, Sept. 12, with a JV game at 4:30 p.m., followed by the varsity.
On Tuesday, Aug. 29, The Lady Lions rallied to beat Abilene Christian 25-27, 25-15, 26-25, 25-17. The win made up for a 22-25, 14-25 loss to the Lady Panthers in the semifinals of the Albany Summer Slam tournament in August.
“That was a great win, especially having to battle back from that first set,” Reneau said, “They’ve got really big players at the net, but we just played so well.”
Reneau said the key was the team chemistry developed over the first month of the season.
“Our passing was great, and we really dominated at the net,” she said. “I felt like when we were swinging, we were winning. We were hitting around their block well.”
Reneau said the match was a good measure of how much progress the Lady Lions have made.
“It’s all coming together at the right time,” she said. “I didn’t want to peak too early, but I really feel like we’re coming together. We just need to keep the progress going.”
The Lady Lions closed out the week Saturday, Sept. 2, with a 25-9, 25-17, 25-8 sweep at Woodson.
“We played solid,” Reneau said. “Our serving was really good that game.”
Solid serving allowed Albany to reel off several points in a row, particularly in the first and third sets.
“We struggled a little bit in that second set,” Reneau said. “We didn’t really try anything new. We were just trying to sharpen up what we already have going.”
