With football pulling a Hank Snow the week before, and this writer’s personal battle with an infamous virus, I was unable to report on any football games this week. However, during a temporary lapse in the virus attack, I was able to catch some volleyball. Congratulations to the Mustang football team on their landslide win against Calhoun County and back on the winning track, the CCHS Panther football team took down Midland Trail. The CCHS Lady Panthers held a tri match at home the week before against Fayette County and Calhoun County. Calhoun was determined not about to let the Lady Panthers dictate the game as they did in their last meeting. However, it was not meant to be for the Lady Red Devils. Once the Lady Panthers seized the win against Fayette County, the girls then took the business end of the ball and held class. Calhoun didn’t know what hit them; balls came in from all directions against the Lady Red Devils, and they simply couldn’t keep up the pace. The Lady Panthers leveled Red Devil chances of a win with an impressive barrage of serves, kills, sweeps, and light touches. With the amount of skill on the Lady Panther team, this could be a banner year for the team if they can stay focused. It was nice to see the Pit return once again this year to cheer on the teams of CCHS. The Lady Panthers were on the road, as well, travelling to Roane County, but just like Calhoun, the Lady Raiders took a whipping with the Lady Panthers winning three straight games.
Then came the Gilmer Tri Match where, no doubt, the Lady Panthers were favored to win. All three teams were rated in the state with the Lady Panthers holding onto third, an impressive year so far. However, it was not to be this night for our girls. Looking fired up to take this mini tournament to the bank, the Lady Panthers puppy power left stage right and their normal rhythm was altered. The Wirt County team set their sights and were all business in the two games, and the Lady Panthers fell to the Lady Tigers in two straight games. I’m not really sure what happened to the team. At times, the girls played hard, and at other times, they just couldn’t seem to get the ball over the net. The girls looked a little confused during the matches between Wirt and Gilmer, with the one highlight coming against Gilmer when the Lady Panthers squeezed out a win in the second game only to lose the third game by two points. With this loss in the record books, the now 21-5 lady Panthers can put it aside, consider it a learning curve, get set for a whole new week and get back to the business and seriousness of winning volleyball games.
The Lady Mustangs gave a bit of a scare when they took a right hook from visiting Braxton Middle. The Braxton girls came out full throttle against the Mustangs in the first game and quickly doused the fire that the Lady Mustangs had going. Once this loss sunk in and they regrouped, the Lady Mustangs came out with game faces on and shut the Lady Knights of Braxton down in the next two games, took the wind out of Braxton’s sails and won the match. Travelling to Walton the Lady Mustangs took a loss but came right back with a win against Summersville. The Lady Mustangs have three regular season games left with one this week and two next week and only one home game left against Spencer on the 21st.
