Andrews – With the first game of any season, there’s always a lot of good things and a lot of things to get better. But it’s always better to start with a win, which is exactly what Andrews volleyball did Thursday, taking care of Nantahala in straight sets 25-11, 25-12, 25-6.
“It’s a good confidence booster for us,” Andrews head coach Shanna Mustin said. “We’ve got a sort of young team that doesn’t have a ton of varsity experience. It’s good to have live play and a win.”
After graduating four seniors from last season, the 2022 season opener was a chance for players to get acclimated to their new roles. Two likely starting outside hitters weren’t in attendance either, giving more inexperienced players a chance to get some action. Juniors Carley Clark and Americas LeQuire got their first career varsity starts at middle hitter and setter, respectively, while freshman Ally Gibson stepped up from junior varsity to play libero.
Nantahala scored the first two points of the opening set off Lady Wildcats errors, but Andrews ripped off four straight points and never trailed again in the match. Rylie McDonald was the Lady Wildcats’ main hitter when they were able to get into their offense, though Andrews got most of their points off of serves.
With Summer Garrett at the service line, the Lady Wildcats’ 5-4 lead exploded to 17-4, thanks to several aces by Garrett. The strong serving powered Andrews to the first win, as Kinleigh Queen finished it off with two aces of her own.
McDonald and Queen powered Andrews to seven straight points to start the second set, with the Lady Wildcats struggling to defend McDonald’s attack and continuing to have little answer for Queen’s serve. After that start, Nantahala took advantage of some sloppiness of the Lady Wildcats, trimming the lead to 10-9, with six of those points coming on Andrews’ errors. The Lady Wildcats settled in after that, continuing to flummox the Lady Hawks on serve and receive to eventually cruise to a second-set victory.
The third set played out much like the first, with Andrews committing two errors to give Nantahala an early lead before ripping off 11 straight points to run away with the third set and the match. Throughout the match, Mustin liked that her team stayed consistent. But she knows things will have to move quicker when they play bigger teams who can get better swings on the ball.
“We know where we’re going, but when we play some of the bigger teams, it’s going to be a faster tempo,” Mustin said. “We have to get to our spots, we have to transition and be in our spots, so we’re ready for the ball and not caught moving.”
Despite two tough losses against Robbinsville and Andrews, Nantahala’s main goal is just to get better and get more experience. Of the nine players on the roster, only two are seniors.
“Movement, communication and confidence are the main things we need to improve on,” head coach Amy Taylor said. “Our team is mostly freshmen, and I know these things will come in time.”