LDVB wins weekend tourney, drops match to Lake Belton Broncos

By SEAN HANEY

Cove Leader-Press

Last weekend the Lady Dawgs volleyball team went to Irving and absolutely dominated the competition, going undefeated in tournament play, walking away 5-0  and tourney champions.

Outside Hitter Aaliyah Butler and Libero Leila Cooks also walked away with all-tournament honors.

This brings the Lady Dawgs’ record to 17-8.

Their next game is at home today against Ellison and Glenn.

After the tournament was over and all the emotions had settled, Coach Christy Thompson talked about the team’s showing for the weekend.

“We are working to get better every game. We are trying to play up the whole time, not played down to the level of our competition. And we’re trying to improve on things that we need to improve on. We’ve been working hard and we’re fixing things every day that we notice in practice, and we’ve already played 25 games,” Thompson said. “We haven’t had a lot of practice, so a lot of what they’ve been fixing has kind of been on the fly. So, their ability to take what I’m asking them to do and make the adjustments has been awesome to see.”

Senior outside hitter Aaliyah Butler was pleased with the momentum that both she and her teammates felt going into that tournament.

“I felt that our momentum was very strong going into the tournament and that we played with great confidence.”

At the beginning of the season, each player set specific goals for that they wanted to reach, and for Butler those goals were very specific, to become a stronger hitter and more efficient.

“To be honest, I believe I have even done better than last year.”

Butler also had advice for younger players in their quest to make it to the varsity team.

“I believe that they should believe in themselves and always push to do better.”

Junior Larisa Perez was shared after an enduring tournament.

“I think we did well. We went into the tournament feeling confident and feeling like we did better than we did for the previous tournaments, feeling more competent.”

Just like her teammate Perez had set specific goals for her upcoming season.

“My goals were to be better on defense and on hitting on the outside. I’ve been playing well on defense in left back lately and I’ve been getting better on my hitting, and I have been meeting those specific goals.”

Working through the difficulties of losing the last tournament helped the lady dawgs come out stronger and work better as a team this time around.

“I think we did really well. (We were) way better than the other tournament, way more confident, and feeling that we could work more as a team, because we were work even better as a team than when we are down,” Perez said.

Perez also had encouraging words for anyone trying out for the varsity volleyball team.

“Never doubt yourself, and always go in believing you can do other things that other people say you can’t.”