By Taylor Tompkins
The Hays High School Lady Rebel volleyball team gave the packed stands in the Bales gym a 3-0 victory on Friday’s homecoming game against the Tivy Antlers.
The Lady Rebs won in a three-game match winning 25-15 in the first and second matches and 25-19 in the third.
“I wish we could get a huge crowd each night,” Hays head coach Erica Walthers said. “I love it when the gym is packed. It definitely brings energy, and the momentum helps our girls on the court. Any time we can pack this gym, it’s great.”
Seniors Sydney Paradeaux and Melanie Harrington lead the team with 18 and 10 kills respectively. Paradeaux had a kill on the first volley of both the first and second set.
“Sydney and Melanie, our two senior captains, both of them just had a phenomenal game,” Walthers said. “I am really proud how they are coming on strong and connecting well with our setter Katherine. I think that the two of them definitely, and the whole team, earned a lot of points.”
Harrington had four aces for 14 points on the night, contributing to the team’s 40 serving points on the match. Hays had eight aces on Tivy with five serving errors.
Walthers said serving has been a big focus in practice and has been putting mats out during practice to work on the team’s serves.
“Serving has been one of our biggest focuses in practice lately,” Walthers said. “[We’ve been] working on hitting the serves and hitting the areas hard and fast. I think all of our girls really improved on serving, but that was one of our big goals, to serve tough, to try to keep Tivy out of system, which I think we did well.”
The team had a total of four serve receive errors on the game and averaged 13.7 serves received per set.
Before this match, the Lady Rebels were tied with the Antlers, Walthers said. The team is now 9-4 at home and 23-12 on the season. The Lady Rebels are 5-2 in district play.
“We knew they were going to be really tough,” Walthers said. “They are a really good team. We just had to come into this game not underestimating them, knowing that they could be a strong team, and play hard. I think we did that, we came out really hard and we were not going to let them get into the game at all.”
The Lady Rebels will take on the Lockhart Lions in another away game Friday. The Lady Rebels defeated the Lions earlier in the season in three sets.
Rebel Results
• Boerne Champion defeats Hays 3-1
• The Lady Rebels will take on the Lockhart Lions in another away game Friday.
