Lady Cougars travel to take on Brandon Hall Panthers
The Lady Cougars traveled under grey and stormy skies for their second encounter with The Brandon Hall Panthers on Tuesday afternoon. The lineup was missing some of its familiar faces due to injury as the Lady Cougars took the court.
Game one began with an uneven start as the Panthers jumped into a quick lead, 0-4. An early time out was called by TCS coaches for a short pep talk. The time out helped to break their serve and Emily Daugherty kicked things off with a strong serve, backed by some quick volleys on the court. Panthers continued to edge up the score. Shakirah Wazeerud-Din stepped to the serving line, adding well-placed serves to the tally, bringing the Cougars up the board, 7 – 16. Alecta Feely helped to cover the backcourt after some tough shots from the Panthers, however, the Cougs lost the serve. Tracy Li moved into serving position and added 2 more points but the Cougar court communication wasn’t working as it should, hurting our Lady Cougars. Erin McNeal came from the bench to help with backcourt coverage but all of these efforts just couldn’t turn it around, Panthers win, 15-25.
The Cougars changed channels and began game two with more intensity. Shakirah’s consistent serving put the Cougars into the lead early on. Her serves were on fire and the Panthers subbed in numerous players for distraction and court coverage, Cougar advantage 6-4. Cougars lost the serve and tried to get it back. When they did, Tracy copied Shakirah and she too dropped some tough, well-placed shots to the Panther court that they struggled to return. Cougars backed up their strong serving with great court communication and coverage. Bella Scaff offered some perfectly placed shots into the deep Panther court keeping the volley alive. Celeste Jeoffery came from the bench to bring passing strength while Emily and Alecta continued to grab the errant shots that the Panthers sent over the net. Between the Cougar lead and the ominous thunder going off outdoors, the Lady Cougars played strong. Tracy stepped up to serve again, placing perfectly launched serves that took the Cougars to the front of the line, 23-21. Storms hit both indoors and out, as the Lady Cougars lost the lead and game two, 23-25.
While the Cougars changed the lineup adding in some new faces, they couldn’t quite get their foot in the door. Unfortunately, it was a short game as they finished game three and the match with a final score of 6-25.
The team will work hard this afternoon learning from this match and working to be ready for their next AAC match up on Thursday with Atlanta Area School. Go Cougars!
