Lady Bobcats bested in season openers

The Georgia Northwestern Lady Mustangs opened up the 2016 volleyball season on Saturday at the Rossville Athletic Center, hosting Vance Granville Community College out of North Carolina in a pair of best-of-three matches.

However, it would be the visitors that went back home to the Tarheel State happy as they scored two victories. VGCC won the first match, 25-15, 25-21, before claiming a 25-17, 25-21 win in the final match.

LFO alum Serena Turner had a solid afternoon with 16 assists, six aces, five kills, three digs and a pair of blocks. Madalyn Morrison (Calhoun High School) had a team-high seven kills to go with her three aces and one block, while former East Paulding High standout Sierra Crew and Hearts’ Academy alum Kaitlyn Castle added five kills each.

Shelby Thompson (Gordon Lee High School) had 15 digs and recorded a pair of aces. Misty Hunter (LaFayette High School) had one dig and one block and another ex-Lady Rambler, Michaela Suttle, had two digs, a kill and an ace in her first action back on the volleyball court. Suttle previously played basketball for Georgia Highlands College.

Despite the losses, head coach Carrie Powell said there were plenty of positives to take away.

“I put them in a rotation we had not ever done before,” she said. “Serena set all the way around and she’s not a true setter, but they got better each set. We just needed to play in the first set like we did in the fourth, which a good thing because that means we can stay strong even when we are tired.

“I have several very diverse players and that showed tonight when I made my setter my libero and my outside hitter my setter. I told them after the game not to hang their heads because we did some good things today and we can fix our own errors, which is what cost us the matches.

"Their attitudes were the best I’ve ever had on a team. Now that their nerves are gone, and we can get in the gym and practice this rotation, I have no doubt we will win.”

Georgia Northwestern’s next chance for victory will come on

Monday, Sept. 5 with a Labor Day match on Lookout Mountain against the Covenant College junior varsity squad, starting at 7 p.m.

It will be the first

of four straight road games for the Lady Bobcats, who will not be back in action in Rossville until a Sept. 26 date with the The Crown College.