Lady Panthers win one of four
By John Earp
Tuesday night’s volleyball match in the Panther Gym against the Tatum Coyotes (7-5) got off to a good start for the Lady Panthers, with Jal pulling to an early lead, 6-2. The Lady Coyotes were not to be outdone though, and rallied back, tying the game sequentially at 6 and at 7 points each. The Lady Panthers (8-6) then gained momentum, pushing to a 6-point lead.
Natalia Rivera and Amylah Melancon and were especially good at kills Tuesday night. The Lady Coyotes battled back, but were only able to narrow the gap to four. Yamileth Lujan had some excellent digs, saving the volley from some of Tatum’s hardest serves. The Lady Panthers continued to play a solid game, winning 25-17 in the first game of the match.
The Lady Panthers pressed into an early 8-1 lead in the second game, with some excellent serves and hard returns. The Lady Panthers continued to dominate the Lady Coyotes, pulling ahead a bit further for a 12-4 lead. Anysia Herrera demonstrated her ability to kill the ball several times in the second game. Jal led 15-7 about midway through the second game. Abigail Dardon and Natalia Rivera also showed their skill at killing the ball in the second game. In what appeared at the time to be the closing minutes of the game, Jal led 20-10. However, the Panthers inexplicably lost their momentum and unfortunately began to make what became a series of errors, with Tatum quickly narrowing the gap to 4, 21-17. Tatum was gaining major momentum, steadily closing the gap, and then tied the game at 22. It almost seemed as if the teams had switched out bodies with their opponents. Jal then came back and tied the game at 24, but Tatum was able to finally win the second game 26-24.
The third game started out well for the Lady Coyotes, with them pulling ahead 4-0 early on. The Lady Panthers seemed to be in the same mode as they had been in the latter part of the second game, giving points away repeatedly early on. They began to regain momentum after a few minutes, and tied the game at 7. The game became a slowly paced back-and-forth at this point, with both teams exchanging their lead repeatedly until Tatum pulled ahead 15-13, and then proceeded to pull ahead further, 18-13, at which point Jal called a timeout. The Lady Panthers were not able to recover enough momentum to prevail, unfortunately. Final score of the third game was 25-17.
The fourth game again started out with the Lady Coyotes maintaining their momentum, pulling into the lead 8-1. The Lady Panthers showed they still had some fight in them though, narrowing Tatum’s lead 10-7. The Lady Coyotes continued to dominate the game, however, with the Lady Panthers fighting hard but not being able to fend off the Coyotes, unfortunately. Final score of the fourth game was 25-17.
