Playing their first volleyball match in Brownwood this season, and getting a preview of the court they will call home during pool play of the Heart of Texas tournament Thursday, the Brownwood Lady Lions made quick work of the Lampasas Lady Badgers with a 25-8, 25-21, 25-19 sweep Tuesday night at the Brownwood Coliseum.
“We finally decided to come out and stay disciplined in our game plan and what we were doing,” said Lady Lions first-year head coach Kristen Grimes. “We’ve been really working hard on our passing, especially free ball passing and out of system attacking, so we did a really good job of that. Our hitters are hitting their spots that we’re talking about and working on in practice, and then we served aggressively.”
The attack for Brownwood was paced by Hannah Deen with 11 kills, along with Aniah Hines with eight, Demayha Hooker with five, and Kaydence Chandler and Icess Hall with two apiece.
Hall dished out 25 assists and Deen contributed one, while Hall, Chandler and Lanie Johnson each served three aces and Deen tacked on one as well.
On the defensive end, Deen registered eight digs followed by Hall with six, Maddi Scott with five, Johnson with four, Hines with three, Sara Stubblefield with two, and Chandler and Addy Huerta with one each.
At the net, Hooker, Hines and Chandler collected three blocks apiece and Bellah Stokes also registered one.
Grimes was pleased with the level of comfort and confidence the Lady Lions displayed in Tuesday’s performance.
“We’ve been talking with everybody just about communication with each other and how that’s going to build,” Grimes said. “If we continue to communicate well with each other, it just brings us all together on the court and we end up playing as one rather than individuals on the court. The bench players did a great job coming in and keeping that level of play up and we came out with a win.
As for areas in which Grimes would like to see the Lady Lions improve, she said, “We’re still looking to connect with our middles a little bit more in our offense and spread out our offense when our passing is doing well like it was tonight.”
The Lady Lions used a string of 11 unanswered points in the opening set behind the serving of Johnson to seize control of the contest. Deen recorded four kills, Chandler added one, and Johnson served a pair of aces during the decisive run.
In the second set, Brownwood opened a 16-7 advantage before Lampasas crept to within 22-21. A pair of unforced errors by the Lady Badgers and an ace from Johnson resulted in the closing 3-0 surge for the Lady Lions.
Leading 15-10 at one point in the third and final set, the Lady Lions again witnessed Lampasas shave the deficit to a single point, 20-19. Two kills by Deen, blocks from Chandler and Stokes, and an unforced Lampasas error allowed Brownwood to reel off the final five points of the match.
The Lady Lions (3-4) will next battle Early at 8 a.m., Coleman at 10 a.m., Brady at noon, and the Brownwood JV at 3 p.m. in pool play action Thursday at the Heart of Texas tournament, back at the Coliseum.
Regarding the tournament goals, Grimes said, “Continue to build on what we did here tonight. Our passing is starting to get a little bit better day by day, so we need to work on keeping that going. I think we’ll also really have an opportunity to work our offense this weekend.”
