Lady Panthers drop Carver to win second straight contest

Charles City's Sydney Ragin takes flight to tap the ball over the net.

Andre' Jones photo

Charles City Lady Panthers volleyball team can mark another accomplishment off their checklist of things to do; a winning streak.

The Lady Panthers had no trouble disposing the invading Carver Lady Wolverines 25-6, 25-9, 25-13 in Tuesday evening’s contest. The victory is the second in the row as Charles City defeated King & Queen on Sept. 15.

From the onset Charles City had little trouble with the invading Lady Wolverines. After knotting the score at five apiece, Lady Panther Kylee Brinkley’s services helped spark an 8-0 run in the first set. After pulling ahead 14-6, Jaelah Wyatt would convert two aces and serve for the remainder of the set, garnering 11 straight points to claim it.

Charles City’s strong serves continued in frame two as Adrianna Steele scored the first five points to open the set. And even when the Lady Panthers weren’t scoring from behind the gold line, frontcourt play by Brinkley, Jada Cotman, and Ashley McDermott kept the hosts on top heading into the third set.

After the hosts pulled ahead 9-2 behind Brinkley’s serving, Carver responded with its best effort of the night. Carver mounted a 6-2 run midway through the set to cut the Lady Panthers lead to four (14-10). But a retaliatory effort thanks to Raven Christian returned the lead to double figures for the Lady Panthers before ending the match 25-13.

After the contest, Lady Panthers head coach Jessica Hornsby commented about the intersquad competitiveness at practices to improve techniques.

“I’m proud of the serving percentage that we had tonight,” said the victorious head coach. “We have a lot of mini-contests at practice to work on our serves and other aspects of our game.

“Tonight, we stayed humble when we got a big lead and I’m proud of the girls for that,” Hornsby continued. “However, we have to work a little more on our return game as that is something we will have to improve on as we get deeper into the season.”

Charles City’s Lady Panthers upped their season record to 2-4.