MOUND VALLEY – It was a mixed bag of results – at least as far as grading performance was concerned – for the Altoona-Midway Middle School volleyball team here Monday afternoon.
The Lady Jets came up on the short end of the scoreboard in both of their matches. But their brand of play varied quite a bit during the day, according to first-year head coach Tianne Wambsganss.
Altoona-Midway showed a lot of spirit and fight in their opening battle with the Bartlett Braves, playing very tough in both sets before falling 25-19, 25-21.
But against the host Mound Valley Mustangs, the Lady Jets got off to a slow start and never recovered, losing 25-4, 25-3.
“During the Bartlett match, I saw a lot of improvement in our hustle and teamwork on the court compared to our earlier matches,” Wambsganss said. “There were significantly less dropped balls than in our previous matches, and I saw more girls attempting to be aggressive at the net. All in all, we played with a lot of spirit. It was a fun match to watch.
“On the other hand, the match against the Mustangs was a little discouraging,” the coach continued. “Mound Valley jumped out to an early lead and the girls seemed to have a lot of trouble shaking off their mistakes. We definitely did not perform our best in either of the sets and we missed way too many serves to be able to compete with the Mustangs.”
Against Bartlett, all six members of the AMMS squad recorded two or more good serves, including Klaire Barlow and Allie Lockhart, who collected five and four aces, respectively. Destiny Raymond led the Jets with seven attacks. Emily Burch and Kaylor Lampe each knocked five over the net, while Kinzie Nalley and Lockhart recorded three each.
Barlow, Burch and Raymond logged good serves in the match against Mound Valley. Raymond also had four successful over-the-net attacks while Barlow had three and Nalley and Lockhart recorded two apiece.
Altoona-Midway (0-5) will attempt to secure its first win of the season on Thursday, Sept. 19, when the Jets play host to Liberty Homeschool Alliance. First serve is slated for 5 p.m. at Milo Peterson Gymnasium.