Lady Bulldogs volleyball team finds collective spirit

The Cedartown Lady Bulldogs had an unexpected break before the regular season starts winding down, one that head volleyball coach Elisa Prewett said her team took advantage of ahead of scheduled matches after press time.

With a young squad and not much time for additional rest in the middle of the season, Prewett said one piece of the magic that makes up a team has been missing: something to bring them together.

Practice this past week with games postponed by Hurricane Irma closings gave the Lady Bulldogs a chance to do just that as they were able to take it easy and use the offtime as an opportunity for team building.

“It’s different when you’re in practice and having fun and bonding,” Prewett said.

The change in atmosphere wasn’t all just about having her young t eam come t ogether. Prewett said her squad also used the additional gym time to work on improving their serves and returns, and targeted their hitting to have better shots at making scores at critical times in matches.

Her weekend assessment of the results were that putting in the work on those two items will pay dividends when they got into a region round-robin with Chapel Hill and Central Carroll on Sept. 19.

Thus far, she said other than the Junior Varsity team, it’s the only item on their schedule until they return to play on the road next week against Troup County and then Armuchee.

Prewett said that with upcoming matches this week after press time against evenly matched teams, her Lady Bulldogs squad was coming in with high hopes for victory.

“This is going to be one of those ‘best man wins’ situations,” she said. “We won’t be coming into our upcoming games with the same attitude we’ve had in the past where we were expecting a hard day. We’ve got a good chance of pulling these out.”

Those hopes are also extending to a potential to end up in contention for the region, which Prewett said is possible depending on how the cards work out.

For her squad, the timing of their improvement couldn’t be better.

“They are coming together at just the right time to hit their stride for the season and pick up some crucial wins,” Prewett said.