Lady Dawgs volleyball beats Johnson City

By Sean Haney

Cove Leader-Press

On Tuesday night the Lady Dawgs volleyball took on Johnson City, beating the Lady Eagles in three straight sets to end pre-season play. 

The win brings the Lady Dawgs’ record to 20-9.

Hit after hit, the ball went over the net and for most of the time it went in the Dawgs’ favor.

During the first set, the Lady Dawgs came back from being down big, and after the match was over, Coach Christy Thompson addressed them being down.

“I just told them that we needed to focus on what we needed to do, and what we needed to do was shut their middle down and then play at our pace, not play at their pace.”

Johnson knew the Lady Dawgs had to prepare for facing Johnson City.

“We had a little film on them from the tournament that we were at. So, we watched some film kind of broke it down. We let them know what to expect out of their middles, number 11, and number two, were both great hitters for that team,” said Thompson.

“We knew what to expect so I think in the beginning of the game, she got some good swings on us, and they kind of panicked. Then in the timeout, I said, ‘We’re not going to panic. She has shown you that she can hit both spots. Now you’re just going to read her, make her hit what she doesn’t want to hit.’ And then once we were able to control her a little bit, we were able to take control of the game.”

The Lady Dawgs did just that after being down in the first set. They were never down again in the following sets.

Chloe Tuiasosopo had eight blocks on the night and afterward she celebrated with her teammates, the crowd, and Coach Thompson.

“I think that us coming together after every point really made us come up, come back. We really spent a lot of time together as a team, because once you have that good camaraderie, everything else comes together,” she said. “I really liked how our student section showed up and I liked how whenever somebody got a big kill or a big block, we all came together and the whole team was laughing.”

The student section on Wednesday’s game was made up a lot of the players part of the night.

Coach Thompson weighed in on the crowd support.

“The crowd involvement was amazing. I liked that right after the win that the girls wanted to go and the crowd for cheering them on, and then close out with me. Just the atmosphere, the kids and being excited that they won.”

The Lady Dawgs begin district play tonight against Harker Heights at home.