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The Dupo Lady Tigers Varsity Volleyball team lost their home opener Thursday, September 10th to the Lebanon Lady Greyhounds in three games, 25-11, 20-25 and 25-10.
In the first game Lebanon raced out to a 15-2 lead. The Lady Greyhounds were not as dominant as one might think judging by the score. But they served well in the first game, consistently put the ball deep in Dupo’s court and while their net play was not dynamic it was certainly solid. At one point Lebanon owned an 18-4 lead. The Lady Tigers seemed to struggle in the first game with floor position, good sets and poor serving. Lady Tigers Coach Jill Puckett said, “For our first home game we just weren’t pumped up enough. We had such a great battle with Marissa on Tuesday I thought we’d be more enthused tonight.” Dupo tried to mount a comeback spurred by the solid serving and net play of Dupo senior Kim Chappelear cutting Lebanon’s lead to 23-10. But it was not enough as Lebanon finished with the 25-11 victory.
In the second game it seemed as if a different Lady Tiger squad took the floor. Jumping out to an early 5-1 lead Dupo was playing with a different intensity and attitude. The Lady Greyhounds fought back to within two at 6-4, but the Lady Tigers seemed to have all the answers in the second game. Each time that Lebanon surged back, Dupo would string points together to maintain their lead and they never trailed Lebanon in the second game. The net play of Dupo senior Margaret Davenport was impressive as she made two key blocks in the second game as well as two spikes for kills helping push the Lady Tigers out to an 18-9 lead. But Lebanon showed no quit as they climbed back into at 19-15. With the score 20-16, senior Taylor Johnson-Roy came through with a spike for a kill that turned the momentum back in Dupo’s favor as the Lady Tigers held off the Lady Greyhounds for the 25-20 win. Coach Puckett said, “We had a good second game. We served better, we communicated better, and it was an all around better effort.”
For the first few moments of the third game it seemed like they might be fighting like cats and dogs for the win. The play was going back and forth and the teams were tied 5-5. But Lebanon began to serve well and keeping the ball deep in Dupo’s court the Lady Greyhounds began to capitalize on Lady Tiger mistakes pulling out to a 21-7 lead. After having such a great second game the Lady Tigers suddenly seemed lifeless and unenthused with seemingly no answer for the solid serving and net play of the Lady Greyhounds who won the third game 25-10. Coach Puckett said, “I think they would all agree that mentally we just weren’t there tonight. Lebanon has a couple of good hitters but we were slow on our blocks. Margaret Davenport does a great job for us at the net but she can’t be there all the time. We need some of our other girls to be more consistent with their net play. We need to make better sets and to do that we need to make better passes. But the third game it seemed like we were off balance.”
Over the next two weeks the Lady Tigers have a formidable task in playing 5 games plus a tournament at Orchard Farm High in St Charles County. Three of those are conference foes Steeleville, Valmeyer and New Athens. The schedule can be a real challenge for student athletes. And although the Lady Tigers have dropped their first two conference games don’t count them out. The glass appears to be half full. Coach Puckett said, “We have a definite chance to win in our conference. The difference I see between last year’s team and this year’s team is that this group of girls hates to lose. To me that means they care about it. So as long as we keep working and pushing and correcting our mistakes I believe we can compete and win our share of games this year.”
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