Lady Lions to host tournament this week
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lady Lions wrapped up the first week of volleyball practice with a pair of scrimmages over the weekend.
Albany opened its regular season Tuesday, Aug. 8 at Breckenridge, losing in three tough sets, 21-25, 14-25, 23-25.
The Lady Lions host their annual Albany Summer Slam tournament Thursday-Saturday, Aug. 10-12.
Lady Lions head coach M.J. Reneau said the team is ready to get the new season underway.
“We are definitely ready for it to start counting against our record,” Reneau said. “We talked about where we want to end up in district and the playoffs and what we want our record to be. We have lots of goals for this season.”
Reneau said the biggest task for the first week was getting back in volleyball mode.
“We had to get back on the court, knock off the rust, and just get that team chemistry going,” she said.
On Friday, Aug. 4, Albany hosted Benjamin for the first scrimmage, then visited Breckenridge on Saturday, Aug. 5 for the second.
“We used a little bit different format on Friday,” Reneau said. “We played for 30 minutes and didn’t keep score during that time. Then we played best-of-three sets and won that 2-0.”
On Saturday, Albany took Breckenridge to five sets playing regular match rules.
“The scores were very close, and we played for more than two hours,” Reneau said. “We got a lot of scrimmaging in, a lot of play on the court. We’re ready to see how it comes together when it actually counts.”
The Albany JV won its scrimmage at Breckenridge, playing best-of-three.
“We’ve got a big freshman group on that JV team,” Reneau said. “I’m really proud of the way they’ve stepped up with this being their first year.”
In the tournament, Lady Lions varsity pool matches are scheduled for 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. Thursday (today) with the JV playing at 1:00, 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. Friday.
“We’re really excited about the tournament,” Reneau said. “It’s one of our favorites of the season. It feels like we kick off the season hosting this tournament, and we get to see a lot of teams.
Reneau said being able to schedule the tournament before the start of classes allows the team to focus just on volleyball for three days.
“When school starts, there are more things for the girls to be responsible for,” she said. “There’s schoolwork, football games, cheerleading. This time is really important for us to stay together and focus on volleyball as much as we can.”
