DECATUR -- Lady Bulldog and Lady Warrior fans were treated to an action-packed volleyball match Aug. 28 when Life Way Christian Academy made the short trip from Centerton to Decatur to begin the second week of the 2018 season. Unfortunately for Decatur fans, Life Way took the match in a tiebreaker, three sets to two, handing the Lady Bulldogs their second loss of the season.
In the first set, the Lady Bulldogs jumped out in front of the Lady Warriors in the early going, leading by as much as five. Halfway through the set, Life Way came back and tied at 12 all, beginning a run that would eventually earn them the first set, 25-17. This would be the largest deficit in the contest, as both teams finished between three and five points of each other in the remaining sets.
Decatur took the Life Way coach completely by surprise in sets two and three, powering back from behind to win, 25-22 and 25-20.
The heat in Peterson Gym became a factor in the next two sets as both teams began to run out of steam. Still, both teams managed to play on and some of the longest and action-packed volleys of the evening came in these sets. At times, the volleys lasted between two and four minutes, with some seemingly impossible balls being picked up and sent back over the net, sometimes surprising the opposing team. These remarkable saves by both Decatur and Life Way contributed to the longevity of these volleys.
The Lady Warriors took the fourth set, 25-20, sending the match into a tiebreaker. Life Way jumped to an early lead in the opening minutes of the fifth set. Decatur stayed with them until Life Way went on a four-point run that won them the tiebreaker, 15-10, and the match, 3-2.
Lilly Lee, one of the stars on the seventh-grade and junior-high teams over the past two years, played her first varsity match. Her drive and dedication to the Lady Bulldog program was evident in this match when she made several key saves throughout the third set, contributing to the Lady Bulldogs' win in that set.
The Lady Bulldogs traveled to Bentonville Aug. 30 to take on the Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy Spartans in the gym at the NWA Classical campus. This was the second meeting between these two teams this season. The first, on Aug. 2, ended with the Lady Bulldogs winning the match in three straight sets.
In the Aug. 30 contest, Decatur repeated its earlier performance, defeating the Lady Spartans, 25-13, 25-6, 25-15, to win the match in three straight sets.
Going into week three of the 2018 season, the Lady Bulldogs are now 2-2 overall. They face off against two new volleyball opponents, the Hackett Lady Hornets Sept. 4 at Peterson Gym and the Mulberry Lady Yellowjackets Sept. 6 in Mulberry. Both contests are scheduled to begin with the junior high teams at 4:30 p.m.
Sports on 09/05/2018