Tuesday, August 26, the Lady Raiders took on the number 21 ranked team in 1A, The Monroe Central Golden Bears. The game was a tough battle going into it and the Raiders knew it was going to be a competitive game. The Lady Raider fell in five games, 25-22, 23-25, 25-21, 15- 25, 10-15. In the third set, the Raiders came back from a six point deficit and won the set. After the game, we talked to the varsity head coach, Lynn Blevins, to get his thoughts on the game, before and after. “I thought we had a really good chance to play well, to work on what we have done in practice with a new defense and try to take away our unforced errors that seemed to be a bother to us every night we go out.” Blevins said.
The Raiders were lead by Junior, Arrianne Moore and Senior, Allison Blevins, with 7 kills apiece, followed by Savannah Deakyne 6, Megan Horton 5, Alexis Collins 2, and Lela Knowles, Bailey Kohr and Megan Fiechter 1. Horton had 4 blocks, Blevins 2 and Deakyne 1. Deakyne had 2 aces, Collins, Fiechter and Blevins had 1. Fiechter had 22 assists, Camryn Marcus, Deakyne, and Moore 2, and Collins 1.
In the JV match, the Raiders lost in two 23-25 and 20-25. The JV was lead by Brooke Zoda with 7 kills and Sara Booher with 1 block. Houston Lovell had 2 aces and Jessica Yencer had 11 assists.
Midway through the 4th game, a serve by Collins was shanked by the bears which hit the fire alarm and forced everyone to evacuate the gym for twenty minutes. This caused the momentum for both teams to stop mid-game and the 4th game was a struggle. However, Coach Blevins still was proud of his team stating, "I think that other than our forth game, we played really well. We played the role of the aggressor in a lot of instances where in the past we have not been so aggressive. I think our team learned a lot from that, in the fact that if we force the issue or if we push the tempo of a game, that good things will happen." Overall the Lady Raiders drive and passion for the game shined through and made for a great game.