Murphy – If there were any first game jitters for Murphy women’s volleyball when it opened the season against Gilmer County, Ga., on Aug. 15, they didn’t show.
The Lady Bulldogs took advantage of an overmatched Lady Bobcats team, sweeping them in straight sets 25-9, 25-20, 25-12.
“I think that was a great first game,” Murphy head coach Jordan Lovingood said. “Really, you don’t know where you are until you actually play a match. So coming in, and just seeing kids step up and get the job done, was a great feeling tonight.”
With the Lady Bulldogs losing six seniors from last year’s Final Four squad, there were plenty of opportunities for new players to step up, and even more with two likely starters missing. Murphy only dressed nine players, just three more than the minimum needed to play. Catalina Barreiro, Julia Dockery, Riley Dockery, Addie Johnson, Olivia Payne and Maddison Seabolt, played almost every rotation, with Cayla Geer checking in the first and second sets.
Returning varsity players Riley Dockery, Payne and Seabolt led the Lady Bulldogs, while Johnson also impressed at setter. After being called up from junior varsity during last year’s playoff run, Johnson fit in well to Murphy’s offense, even providing a left-handed swing on the ball at times that caught Gilmer off guard.
“Addie’s great,” Payne said. “She’s always somebody I can count on, and I’m glad to have her as a setter. She’s very young, but you wouldn’t know it.”
The Lady Bulldogs came out firing to start the match, scoring the first six points. Dockery, Payne and Seabolt each had kills during the run, and Gilmer had little answer for Murphy’s attack when they could get a clean swing on the ball.
“Liv and Madison, they’re just so experienced,” Lovingood said. “And to add to that Riley, she’s just so smart with the ball. Her passing game has gotten so much better.”
After cruising through the first set, the Lady Bulldogs had to dig a little deeper in the second set. The Lady Bobcats took a 6-5 lead in the set, and kept it somewhat close.
Murphy rattled off six straight points to retake the lead, only for Gilmer to answer back with four in a row. After a Lady Bulldogs’ run extended the lead to 18-12, the Lady Bobcats responded with a 5-1 run to trim the lead to two before Murphy finished off the set.
“In the second game, what happened was we were just miscommunicating and didn’t get to our spots on time,” Lovingood said. “And that created chaos for us.”
The third set was like the first, with the Lady Bulldogs scoring the first five points and never looking back. The closest Gilmer got was within 3 points, and Murphy had about half of its 17 service aces in the final set.
“We’re still getting used to each other, getting the chemistry going,” Payne said. “But I think we did a very good job in our first game working as a team and I can only see us going up from here.”