By Kari Basey
On Tuesday, October 25, the Heritage Christian Eagles came to Lyons to play a first round match with the winner advancing to the district championships on Saturday. The match was hard fought and close. In the first set the Lady Lions had a strong performance, beating the Eagles 25-20. The next set the Eagles gained some momentum
narrowly beating Lyons 25-23. The third set the Eagles soared beating the Lady Lions 25-14. With their backs to the wall and play-off dreams on the line, Lyons battled back beating the Eagles 25-20. Lyons maintained the momentum generated in the fourth game and started strong in the fifth, building an early lead. The Lady Lions never looked back, winning the set 15-6 and earning the opportunity to play in the district championships in front of a supportive crowd.
One high note in the match was the return of veteran setter, Jesse Montross. Jesse played primarily back-row defense, passed on serve receive and set in transition. Her smile showed she was happy to be back playing.
Madeline Keen had a strong overall match with 6 kills, 17 serves (1 ace), 21 assists, and 12 digs. Nola Basey also had a good overall match with 16 kills, 3 aces, 3 blocks, and 18 digs. Shannon Gilman and Michelle Hickey provided strong play at the net. Gilman had 5 kills, 3 blocks; Hickey had 4 kills, 2 blocks. Genna Gibson, Joelle Holst, and Jesse Montross provided solid defense in the back-row with 10, 8 and 6 digs respectively.
On Friday, October 28, Lyons traveled to Alexander Dawson to face Resurrection Christian, Dayspring Christian, and Longmont Christian. Although the Lady Lions beat Resurrection Christian at the very start of the season, the games were close and the Cougars had given Lyons many free points on errors. The Lady Lions knew they would not get as many free points this match. The first game the Lady Lions struggled and the Cougars won 25-13. The second game Lyons was more competitive but still lost 17-25. The third game Lyons was able to put together some runs of their own as they won 25-22. Unfortunately the momentum shifted again to their opponent and Lyons lost 14-25 in the fourth and final set.
Gibson had a phenomenal performance recording 32 digs in the match. Keen added 11, Holst 10 digs. The Lady Lions blocked well in the match with Hickey leading the team with 6, Basey 5, Keen and Stevelinck with 3 each. Keen also served well for the Lady Lions with 15 serves, 1 ace. Montross added 13 serves, 1 ace. Kill numbers were unavailable.
Lyons second match was against a strong Dayspring Christian team who had recently beat them in a home match in three straight games. Unfortunately for Lyons, the results were the same, as they lost 16-25, 18-25 and 13-25.
Holst led the team in digs with 12, Gibson added 10. Keen once again led the team in serving with 2 aces. Basey led the team in blocks with 4. Kill numbers were unavailable.
The final match of the evening was for third place in districts as it had already been determined that neither team would advance to the regional tournament. It was an emotional battle between the Longmont Christian and Lyons seniors to end their season on a high note. Both teams battled with many lead changes, but the Warriors ended up beating the Lady Lions 25-23 and 25-27 to end the season. Stats were unavailable for this match.
Lyons finishes the season 9-15. The team will graduate 7 seniors but expect a large class of freshman volleyball players to participate next fall.
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