GENTRY -- For the Decatur Lady Bulldog volleyball team, the trip to Gentry Aug. 31 marked the end of a long week as it played Lady Pioneers in the third of a three-match series.
Earlier in the week, the Lady Bulldogs lost to Green Forest and Shiloh Christian in a pair of conference matchups. Gentry proved to be a formidable opponent as well, and the Lady Pioneers took the victory in three straight sets.
After the earlier games, Coaches Jessi Castagna and Tajhe Turner made a few modifications to their game plan which proved to work a little better, forcing the Lady Pioneers to work for every point they made.
During the first set, the Lady Bulldogs fell behind quickly and were never able to catch up, giving the set to the Lady Pioneers, 25-12.
Decatur played a much better second set, taking a five-point lead in the early stages before a Gentry time out shut down the Lady Bulldogs' offensive run. Six plays later, the Lady Pioneers gained the lead. But the Lady Bulldogs would not go down without a fight. They came to within one point, forcing Gentry coach Courtney Millsap to use a time out to make modifications to her game plan which proved to be Decatur's undoing. The Lady Pioneers took the second set, 25-21.
Coach Castagna moved some of her players to different positions in an effort to win the third set. The changes worked in the early stages of the set and the Lady Bulldogs once again took a slim lead. But a series of simple mistakes proved to be Decatur's undoing, and Gentry took the victory, 25-17, and the match, 3-0.
With this victory, the Gentry Lady Pioneers improved their overall record to 3-2 and 1-1 in conference play. The Lady Pioneers lost matches, 3-0, against Westville (Okla.) and West Fork on Monday and Tuesday of last week.
Decatur Lady Bulldogs dropped to 0-4 in the 1A/4A conference race and 1-4 overall going into week three of the 2017 volleyball season.
In earlier matches, the Decatur junior varsity lost its match to Gentry, 25-10, 25-16 and 25-12. In the second set, Decatur went on a 9-0 run on serves by Joni Moffin. A timeout by Gentry brought an end to Moffin's streak, giving the Lady Pioneer junior varsity team the victory, 3-0.
In the Decatur-Gentry junior high matchup, the Junior Bulldogs took the victory, 25-27, 25-22 and 15-5, taking the match, 2-1, in a tie breaker. This is the second win for the Decatur junior high team, which defeated Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy in the opening match of the season in three straight sets.
Sports on 09/06/2017