Coaches Corner
Match One Recap
The Houston County Lady Bears Varsity Volleyball team started their 2006-2007 campaign Tuesday with two very impressive wins. The Lady Bears traveled to Forsyth to play a tri-match with Mary Persons and Warner Robins. In the first match the Bears needed all three games to win the match. They lost the first game 22-25. They rallied to win the second match 26-24. The Lady Bears were tied the score 23-23 but lost the rally to go down 23-24. They rallied and put the game away on a kill by Jennifer Doebereiner. Then Morgan Hollars served the final two points for the victory. In the third and decisive game the bears jumped out and lead the entire match. The Lady Bears were helped by the determined serving of Catherine Goodman, who scored four aces out of seven straight points. This victory over Mary Persons was the first time the Lady Bears have beat the Lady Bulldogs in the program’s history.
In the second match the Lady Bears jumped to the lead in each game and won 25-13 and 25-12. They were lead by consistent serving by Catherine Goodman, Devon Preston and Brittany Pierce. The ladies were also led by some superior blocking by Doebereiner, Nicole Williams and Leah Justin. These ladies and Goodman had multiple kills in both games.
Overall Goodman had ten aces on twenty-four service points. Morgan Hollars had a total of forty-seven assists throughout both matches. Jennifer Doebereiner had six blocks and Leah Justin and Catherine Goodman had five kills apiece. The attack was started by several key digs by the defensive specialists Dhwani Patel, Sam Moncada and Brittany Pierce.
The record for the Lady Bears is 2-0 Overall and 0-0 in Area 2-AAAAA. They next play Thursday at Callaway versus Callaway and LaGrange. They also play Saturday at the North Cobb Invitational.
Match Two Recap
The Houston County Lady Bears Varsity Volleyball team continued their 2006-2007 campaign Thursday with two very impressive wins. The Lady Bears traveled to Hogansville, GA to play a tri-match with Callaway High School and LaGrange High School. In the first match against LaGrange, the Bears needed only two games to win the match winning 25-12 and 25-8. The first game was simply balanced play and strong defensive play by the team aided by several mistakes by LaGrange. The team only netted three aces in the game but served consistently; and allowed LaGrange only four points off of their serves. The second game of the match was more dominant by the Lady Bears. Devon Preston ran off a string of seven straight points on serves and six were aces. In this game the Lady Bears only allowed LaGrange one point off of their serves.
In the second match the Lady Bears jumped to the lead in each game against Callaway and won 25-10 and 25-12. They were lead by consistent serving and some superior net play.
Overall, Morgan Hollars had a total of twenty-seven assists throughout both matches. Jennifer Doebereiner had two blocks and two kills. Leah Justin and Catherine Goodman had three kills apiece. The attack was started by several key digs by the defensive specialists Dhwani Patel who had four assists, Sam Moncada who had six key digs and Brittany Pierce who had three assists.
The record for the Lady Bears is 4-0 Overall and 0-0 in Area 2-AAAAA. They next play Saturday in Kennesaw at the North Cobb Invitational playing Grayson (8-AAAAA), North Cobb (5-AAAAA), Osborne (5-AAAA), South Cobb (4-AAAAA) and Chattahoochee (6-AAAAA).
Match Three Recap
The 4-0 Overall and 0-0 in Area 2-AAAAA Houston County Lady Bears Varsity Volleyball team traveled Saturday to the North Cobb Invitational in Kennesaw playing Grayson (8-AAAAA), North Cobb (5-AAAAA), Osborne (5-AAAA), South Cobb (4-AAAAA) and Chattahoochee (6-AAAAA). The Lady Bears played well and walked away with four wins and one loss improving their record to eight wins and one loss.
The Lady Bears started out by playing Grayson. In the first game the ladies fell behind at one time the score was 16-3. The ladies rallied and won 25-23. They finished the match win by defeating the Grayson Lady Rams 26-24. Coach Jones was disappointed in the way they started to play falling so far behind. We got off the bus and played like we were still asleep. Once we woke up, we played well!
In the next match of the day the Lady Bears took on the host North Cobb Lady Warriors. This was a highly contested match and it took three games to determine a winner. The Lady Bears won the first game 25-22 but they dropped the second game 17-25. This set up the final game of the match. The Ladies struggled to consistently put the ball in on serves. They ladies were also troubled by a trio of questionable calls by the officials. After the final of these disputed calls, the team was fired up and came out hitting and put down the Lady Warriors once and for all. Coach Jones felt that we gave away the second game but was proud of the way they rallied to win the match.
The third match of the day versus Osborne was probably the most lopsided and difficult for the Lady Bears. So the ladies worked on fundamentals, proper serve techniques, spot serving or picking a target and hitting it and on defense making each hit better. The end of the match resulted in the Lady Bears winning 25-6 and 25-8. This was a very difficult match to focus even for me. That being said, we ended up taking care of fundamentals and played well.
The fourth match was against South Cobb High School. As we were warming up for this match our Senior Middle Hitter Jennifer Doebereiner pulled up hurt. She has been nursing a sore Achilles Tendon and the stress of the day hit her, the trainer worked on her, we set her out and worked a different rotation. Leah Justin took her place in the rotation and played well; other then that the ladies showed little signs of the long day in the first game of the match beating South Cobb 25-10. The ladies were cruising to another match win leading 11-6 in the second game, when it was discovered the Lady Bears served out of rotation. The score was corrected, to 8-7 and the ladies fought through this to win 25-19.
The final match was the most difficult of the day; both teams were undefeated on the day and the season. Chattahoochee High had played early in the day and had actually had about five hours off to rest while for HOCO this was their third straight match. Coach Jones felt the conditioning we have done would carry us through. The tired Lady Bears were inspired when Jennifer Doebereiner laced up her shoes and insisted on playing. The first game went to the Lady Cougars 16-25, the Lady Bears rallied in the second by committing no service errors and won 25-17. In the third game of the match, the fatigue finally came through as the Lady Bears committed a couple of mental mistakes and ended up losing 25-11.
Overall, this was a great day that should prove we can play with anyone in AAAAA as four of the five teams we faced were in AAAAA. The record is now 8-1 Overall, 0-0 in 2-AAAAA. Morgan Hollars had a total of seventy-three assists throughout all five matches. Catherine Goodman had six blocks and thirteen kills. Jennifer Doebereiner had three blocks and thirteen kills. Leah Justin and Nicole Williams each added three kills and one block. Devon Preston added five kills and three assists. The attack was started by several key digs by the defensive specialists Dhwani Patel who had seven assists and sixteen digs, Sam Moncada had twenty-four digs and five assists and Brittany Pierce had twelve digs and nine assists.
Match Four Recap
The Houston County Lady Bears Varsity Volleyball team continued their 2006-2007 campaign Thursday with a split of their matches. The Lady Bears traveled to Henry County to play a tri-match with Ola High School and Morrow High School. In the first match against Ola, the Bears needed only two games to win the match winning 25-13 and 25-16. The first game was simply balanced play and strong defensive play by the team. The team only netted three aces in the game all by sophomore Devon Preston. She ran a streak of ten points while getting the aces and that was important. The second game of the match was again a balanced attack by the Lady Bears. Devon Preston ran off a string of six straight points on serves and two were aces. Coach Jones felt that Devon had their number in the match she was spot serving them perfectly. The offense was added by the best back row play so far this season. I felt we hustled to every ball.
In the second match the Lady Bears won the first game 25-10 because of forfeit, Morrow was late and the referee was just about to call the match when Morrow showed up. The Lady Bears played well but made some errors at critical junctures in the second game of the match and lost 28-26 (a normal game is to 25, win by two). In the final game the match when back and forth as neither team could consistently string a run together. Morrow was able to squeak by 26-24. Coach Jones felt that Morrow snuck by with one, while not making excuses, the squad was without their starting Middle Hitter Jennifer Doerbreiner, who stayed behind to rehab a sore Achilles tendon. Our trainer thought the rest would have her ready for Saturday when we start area play. Coach Jones can’t wait to play Morrow on October 5th at HCHS with a full and healthy squad.
Overall, Morgan Hollars had a total of twenty assists throughout both matches. Catherine Goodman had five kills. The attack was started by several key digs by the defensive specialists Dhwani Patel who had four assists and two key digs, Sam Moncada who had six key digs and three assists and Brittany Pierce who had three assists. Devon Preston had ten aces while Nicole Williams had four.
The record for the Lady Bears is 9-2 Overall and 0-0 in Area 2-AAAAA. They next play Saturday in area play at Luella High School. They play Luella at 11:00, Union Grove at 12:00 and Mundy’s Mill at 1:00.
Match Five Recap
The Lady Bears Volleyball team won their first ever Area matches Saturday as they traveled to Luella High School Saturday and played an area quad match. The Lady Bears won the first match of the day against the host Luella in two games 26-24 and 25-13. Coach Jones felt the play was balanced and pleased with the win. It was a huge relief to finally get the first Area win. I felt we were close last year but just could not close the deal; this year’s team has been focused on finishing a match.
The Lady Bears fell in the second match to Area leader Union Grove two games to zero with scores of 16-25 and 16-25. Coach Jones felt this is one of the best teams on our schedule and we played well. The score does not indicate how closely we played them. We had several long rallies that could have gone either way, on Saturday they went Union Grove’s way. When we left the court the ladies really want a rematch, hopefully for the Area Championship.
The squad rebounded to win the final match of the day against Mundy’s Mill in rather dramatic fashion. The Lady Bears needed three games and the scores were 25-18, 23-25 and 30-28 (normal match is 25 win by two). Coach Jones felt this was a match we should have easily won; we were tired and got sloppy in the second game. We were up and cruising and we let them get back into the game and that gave Mundy’s Mill a lot of confidence going into the third game. It ended up being a nail-biter that could have went either way. Fortunately, it went our way. I am very proud of the team in spite of their fatigue and own mental mistakes, they persevered and won.
The day improves the Lady Bears overall record to 11 - 3 and 2 -1 in Area 2-AAAAA. The ladies play Wednesday at Pace Academy against Pace and Greater Atlanta Christian and then back into area action Saturday at Redan High School against Redan, Lithonia and Stephenson.
Stats for the matches:
HCHS v Luella
Devon Preston 7 Aces
Jennifer Doebereiner 2 Kills
Catherine Goodman 2 Kills 3 Aces
Nicole Williams 1 Kill 2 Block
Morgan Hollars 8 Assists 1 Blocks
Brittany Pierce 1 Assist, 2 Digs
Dhwani Patel 4 Digs
Samantha Moncada 3 Digs
HCHS v Union Grove
Devon Preston 1 Kill 1 Block
Jennifer Doebereiner 2 Kills 1 Block
Catherine Goodman 2 Kills 1 Assist 1 Block
Morgan Hollars 2 Assists, 1 Dig
Brittany Pierce 1 Kill, 1 Dig
Dhwani Patel 2 Digs
Samantha Moncada 2 Digs
HCHS v. Mundy's Mill
Devon Preston 1 Kill, 9 Aces
Jennifer Doebereiner 1 Kill
Catherine Goodman 3 Kills, 3 Aces
Nicole Williams 3 Kills
Morgan Hollars 17 Assists 1 Block
Brittany Pierce 2 Kills
Samantha Moncada 4 assists
Adrienne Pate 1 assist
Match Six Recap
After losing two non-Area Matches Wednesday to #4 Ranked Greater Atlanta Christian (25 – 16 and 25 – 18) and #10 Ranked Pace Academy (19-25, 25-18, 12-25). The Lady Bears Volleyball team won three Area matches Saturday as they traveled to Redan High School in an area quad match. The Lady Bears won the first match of the day against the host Redan High School in two games 26 – 10 and 25 – 15. Coach Jones felt the play was balanced and pleased with the win. Coach Jones said, “After Wednesday, I felt we lost some of our focus. We really were never out of either match. Both Pace and GAC were solid teams but I thought so were we. Thursday and Friday we went back into practice and worked on our fundamentals, the things that have worked for us so far this year. That was on display Saturday.
The Lady Bears won the second match by beating Stephenson High School in two games (25 – 13 and 25 – 22). This was a good match for our confidence. We jumped out and won the first game rather easily and then we made some mistakes and allowed Stephenson to get a little lead but we persevered and won the second game.
The squad won the final match of the day against Lithonia High School. The Lady Bears needed won easily in two games and the scores were 25 – 6 and 25 – 9. Coach Jones felt this was a match we should have easily won; and we did. We worked on our spot serving and we were very successful with it.
With these results the Lady Bears improve their overall record to 14 - 5 and 5 -1 in Area 2-AAAAA and are in second place in the area. The ladies have a busy schedule this week as they play Tuesday at Warner Robins in Area competition; Thursday at HCHS against Northside and Ola; Friday at HCHS (area competition) vs. MLK High School; and Saturday at WRHS in the County Championships.
Stats:
Greater Atlanta Christian
Jennifer Doerbereiner 2 Blocks, 1 Ace, 1 Kill
Catherine Goodman 3 Blocks, 1 Ace
Morgan Hollars 12 assists, 2 Aces
Pace
Jennifer Doerbereiner 1 Kill, 3 Aces
Catherine Goodman 1 Kill, 1 Block
BP 1 Kill 1 Block, 1 Ace
Morgan Hollars 23 assists, 4 Aces
Leah Justin 1 Ace
Redan
Devon Preston 1 Block 1 Assist, 3 Aces
Jennifer Doerbereiner 1 Block, 1 Kill, 2 Aces
Samantha Moncada 1 Ace
Catherine Goodman 1 Kill, 2 Aces
Morgan Hollars 9 Assists, 3 Aces
Leah Justin 1 Block
Stephenson
Jennifer Doerbereiner 3 Kills, 3 Aces
Catherine Goodman 2 Kills 1 Block, 1 Assist, and 1 Ace
Devon Preston 8 Aces,
Morgan Hollars 13 Assists, 3 Aces
Lithonia
Devon Preston 1 Kill, 3 Aces
Jennifer Doerbereiner 8 Aces
Leah Justin 1 assist, 3 Aces
Morgan Hollars 6 Assists, 11 Aces