WATSON – After a ‘booyah’ moment, things worked out pretty well for the Live Oak volleyball team in its season opener against Doyle on Tuesday.
The Lady Tigers controlled the first set early on when Live Oak coach Kenedi Stephens called a timeout, which helped her team refocus. The Lady Eagles carried that momentum through the remainder of the match to pick up at 3-0 win (25-23, 25-19, 25-16) at Live Oak.
“They came out swinging today, which is what we wanted,” Stephens said. “The first set, of course, we got our jitters out. We still finished the first set, which again, we’re working on. We came out swinging. Our defense was strong.”
Meanwhile, Doyle is working to replace seven seniors from last season’s playoff team.
“We definitely have some improvements that we need to make as a team,” Doyle coach Ashlie Byrnes said. “Communication, and I think, trusting in each other as a team is a big thing that goes hand in hand with the growing pains that we’re experiencing now, but I definitely think it’s something that we can work on and build our team to the standard that it is and should be.”
Doyle jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the opening set and expanded the advantage to 10-3 on a Live Oak error when Stephens called timeout, which is where the ‘booyah’ moment happened.
“Our key word this year is ‘booyah’, so if we’re ever feeling funky or people are in a rut, we just get in the huddle, we don’t talk about anything,” Stephens said. “We just holler ‘booyah’ at each other, and then we go back on the court. It’s like our reset word for this year.”
Live Oak responded as Peyton Shields had four kills and Victoria Bond an ace during a run that cut the lead to 11-9.
Shields finished with 13 kills and five aces but credited her teammates with her success.
“I really like the fact that I can rely on my teammates, and that it’s not just me,” she said. “I can rely on everybody else to get the job done. It really helps the energy in the gym, and it’s a great environment to be in.”
“Wanting the ball and talking to my setters and being able to know they trust me with the ball, it feels really great, so it’s like, ‘Yeah, I’ve got to put the ball away,’” she said.
After two ties, Live Oak pulled ahead before Doyle took a 17-14 edge on an ace by Zoe McLaughlin.
From there, the set featured four ties and three lead changes. Doyle led 22-21 on Ashlyn Roshto’s ace before Live Oak scored the final four points, including an ace by Bond during the run, take the first set, 25-22.
“I think that was definitely a momentum changer, and you saw it on their faces, whether they were in the second set or not,” Byrnes said of the first set. “It really just shifted how we played, and we are a young team, and mental toughness is something that we’re going to have to work on a lot with this group, especially coming off of a seven senior (graduating class). It’s definitely something we’re going to have to work on and hopefully learn how to push through those deficits and maintain the lead that we have.”
Doyle grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second set before Live Oak took advantage of errors and got aces from Charlie Janise and Bond during a run that expanded the lead to 11-4.
Bond had nine kills, three aces, four digs and two blocks, while Janise added seven aces in the match.
“Coming off of the first set going into the second, we wanted to stay ahead the entire time, and the second and third sets, we were pretty much in the lead the whole time, and that was our goal for that second and third, just to clean it up and stay ahead,” Stephens said.
Byrnes mulled the errors from her team.
“That was a big topic of conversation for us, talking about earned versus given,” she said. “A lot of the time during the games, it was us giving them the point because we couldn’t pass the ball, and we couldn’t communicate properly, or the set was off and our hitters didn’t know how to respond. Again, we’re seeing that issue of communication and trust within our team, and we’re hoping that as we get settled into the season, that is something that we hope to improve on.”
Doyle chipped away, cutting the lead to 19-18, but the Lady Eagles closed with a 6-1 burst that included an ace from freshman Kenlee Raines.
“I’m very proud of her,” Stephens said of Raines. “She’s come a long way. She came in very talented, of course. We’ve tweaked things. She’s more confident now. She’s better. She’s settled in with the team now. Being a freshman, playing with everybody older is intimidating. She was nervous at first, but she’s really settled in, and she’s going to be a big part for us the next four years.”
Live Oak led the third set 6-2 before Doyle cut the lead to 7-5 on an ace by Abigail Grantham. Another ace by Doyle’s Demi Magallanes made the score 10-7 in favor of Live Oak before the Lady Eagles began to pull away.
Dakota Kopecky and Gracie Harrouch had aces and Taylor Partin two kills during a stretch that put Live Oak ahead 20-11.
“This year we have a lot more hitters,” Stephens said. “We’re much more spread out. All of our hitters are hitting from different places. It’s not like you’re an outside, you’re a middle, you’re a right, so we’re coming from everywhere this year, which is good.”
Ashlyn Roshto had an ace for Doyle, cutting the lead to 20-13, but Live Oak outscored the Lady Tigers 5-3 to close out the match.
“We struggled to start off strong in serve-receive, and it just kind of carried into every other position,” Byrnes said of the third set. “We tell our girls all the time if they don’t have a pass, you have nothing, and that was very evident in the game we saw tonight.”
Live Oak returns to action at Port Allen on Thursday.
“We’re going to definitely build off of this, and we’re just going to continue to get stronger,” Stephens said.
Doyle travels to face Walker on Thursday.
“We only go up,” Byrnes said. “We’re going to put in the work (Wednesday) at practice and hopefully fix the errors that we saw. It’s not going to happen overnight, but small improvements along the way is going to be big for us in the end.”
