TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2011
Lady Panthers Fall to Lady Royals
By Jamie Carter

MCS Notches First Loss of the Season

The MCS Lady Panthers volleyball team lost its first game of the season Thursday night as they fell to the Lady Royals of Red Bud 21-17 & 21-18.  The loss dropped the Panthers record to 2-1 while the Lady Royals improved to 3-0.

Red Bud held the serve to open the first game but MCS quickly broke the serve to go up 1-0 and then extend it a point to 2-0.  Both teams benefited from some unforced errors early. But once the Lady Royals took a 5-4 lead it seemed that they would not relinquish it as Red Bud opened up a four-point lead at 10-6.  But the Lady Panthers mounted an offensive breaking Red Bud’s serve and scoring four straight points to tie it at 13-13.  After a time-out by Red Bud the Lady Panthers never regained their momentum as the Lady Royals went on to win game one 21-17.  MCS Coach Jen Missey said, “They had some great serves tonight and we had difficulty answering that.  We missed a lot of serves that should have been in play and in rally scoring a few points here and there can really hurt you.”

Game two was similar to game one with the two teams battling hard to get the advantage.  Red Bud got out to a 6-3 lead but MCS battled back to tie and then take an 8-6 lead.  It was then nip and tuck for a while with both teams tying and exchanging the lead several times.  With the score tied at 15-15 the Lady Royals were able to string together three straight points to go up 18-15.  The Lady Panthers were able to tie the game at 18-18 but Red Bud scored the last three points to take the 21-18 win and the match.  Coach Missey said, “Their ability to string points together changed the momentum in their favor.  Once you gain momentum its hard to reverse, volleyball is a fast game.  They came at us hard, they got to a lot of free balls and they made us work for it tonight.  My girls are disappointed but this is something to build on.  Its still early.”