BREAKING INTO THE WIN COLUMN

After sweeping past Penelope for first win of the season, Class 2A Meridian Lady Jackets continue to improve by going through a long month in August

Breaking on through to the other side, the Class 2A Meridian Lady Jacket volleyball team left no doubt when they posted their first victory of the season. And even in defeat, the Lady Jackets showed they are ready to play with anyone right down to the last point. Moving into the fourth week of the 2024 Texas high school volleyball season, the Lady Jackets are basically just getting started.

After going through some growing pains while playing a variety of strong opponents and competing in challenging tournaments, the Lady Jackets welcomed putting the month of August behind them. But with only three weeks remaining before opening district play, the Lady Jackets know there’s still work to do.

Playing in the competitive Rio Vista Tournament last Thursday and Saturday, the Lady Jackets (2-11) advanced to the Consolation Championship game, but fell to the Class 4A Hillsboro Junior Varsity Lady Eagles.

“We struggled to get going in the Hillsboro match,” Meridian volleyball head coach Lyndsie Schur said. “And unfortunately, it was too little, too late. As I told the girls, I am so proud of how much they progressed over the weekend.

“August can be such a long month of volleyball. But I certainly feel like we are making progress and figuring out where the puzzle pieces fit best.”

Coming off a busy schedule last week to close out August, Lady Jackets will play two home matches this week, taking on the Class 3A Whitney Lady Wildcats at 6 p.m. Tuesday before hosting the Class 1A Jonesboro Lady Eagles at 6 p.m. Friday in Yellowjacket Gymnasium.

After experiencing a rough day on Thursday, the Lady Jackets moved into the Consolation bracket and lost their first game on Saturday to Class 4A Fort Worth Castleberry, 25-15, 25-15. But Meridian bounced back to knock off the Rio Vista JV to earn a place in the title game.

In four matches at the tournament, freshman Daylee Gilbert led the Lady Jackets with 14 kills, followed by senior Journey Stauffer with 10 kills and 21 digs, while senior Mariana Paniagua delivered a team-high 21 assists and 21 digs.

“Our girls really responded well on Saturday,” Schur said. “Even though we lost to 4A Fort Worth Castleberry, I was very proud of how well the girls worked together and played some very good volleyball. Against the Rio Vista JV, our girls started with our foot on the gas from the get go and came out victorious. I truly couldn’t be more proud of how hard they worked together and fought to win that game.

Opening the week with a home game against Evant last Tuesday, Meridian lost to the Lady Elks, 25-14, 25-8, 25-11, in straight sets. Stauffer led the Lady Jackets with five kills and two service aces, while Paniagua produced eight assists and 15 digs.

“Although the score doesn’t really show it, our girls got so much better tonight,” Schur said following the Evant match. “We played some very long points with Evant and came out on top of those long points several times. Evant has a middle blocker that is a very good ball player, and our girls shut her down a few times. That was huge for our confidence.

“Like I told the girls, obviously, our goal for each game is to win. But if that doesn’t happen, our next goal is to get better every day. And I believe that we did that tonight.”

After struggling in the Lady Jacket Tournament Aug. 15 and 17, the Lady Jackets responded by posting their first victory of the season with a dominating 25-16, 25-14, 25-16 straight set victory over the Penelope Lady Wolverines on the road last Tuesday.

“I am very proud of how well our girls played as a team, and the energy that they brought on Tuesday,” said Schur following Meridian’s first win of the season. “As a whole, we played with such confidence from start to finish. We have been really been talking a lot about being more confident on the court, and they showed that on Tuesday.”

Hoping to build on the momentum of posting their first win of the season, the Lady Jackets started strong against Oglesby before falling to the Lady Tigers in a heartbreaking, five-set thriller, 25-21, 27-25, 19-25, 7-25, 11-15, last Friday in Yellowjacket Gymnasium.

“The Oglesby game was a really tough match,” Schur said. “We played well in the first set, but started the let off the gas a little towards the end of that set. I kept telling the girls to focus on one point at a time, and they executed that to win the second set. Unfortunately, we kept that trend of getting ourselves in a hole early in the game, and that’s really hard to overcome.”

Against Oglesby Friday evening, Stauffer smashed a team-high 14 kills and came up with 13 digs, while Paniagua led the Lady Jackets with 23 assists and 13 digs, junior Katelyn Ramirez delivered a team-high five service aces and junior Dyna Potter came up with two blocks.

“We are a younger team this year, so we are going to go through some growing pains,” Schur said. “Friday was a prime example. But like I told the girls, we can’t be afraid of making mistakes. Those are going to happen. We just have to learn from those mistakes and fix them.”