The Granger Lady Lions improved to 3-3 in district play after beating the Holland Hornets 3-0 in a five-set match Tuesday night.
The Lady Lions won the first three sets by scores of 25-20, 25-17 and 25-11, which keeps them in 3rd place in the district which is a playoff spot.
Tuesday night was “Parents night” in Granger as well where parents of the players of Granger’s junior varsity and varsity teams were recognized and given flowers for all they have done for the team.
“Without the parents we do not have a team,” Lady Lions head coach Margie Burton said. “They have been so willing and so understanding with every ask that we have had. There have been a few instances out of our control this season like deaths in families, so we had to miss a few people, but we also gathered around that and gave them our love. But, without the parents, we have nothing.”
The first set saw the Lady Lions showing off their resiliency a little bit more. After tying the set at nine the Lady Lions went on a 13-8 run and took a commanding 22-17 lead.
Serving was an issue for the Lady Lions as they hit a couple of balls into the net and it allowed Holland to bring the score to 22-20 before the Lady Lions finished off the set with three straight points.
The second set started with more serving struggles and allowed Holland to take an early 6-4 lead. The Lady Lions tightened up their play to tie the set at eight points apiece. Shortly after that the Lady Lions went on another big run of 17-9 and to win the set.
The third set was dominated by the Lady Lions taking a quick 7-0 lead and riding that momentum to a 25-11 win.
“Serves were an issue tonight, clearly. We probably finish the game faster if we don’t miss as many serves as we did,” Burton said. “We did have some really good swings from Tessa (Burton) and some really good swinging from Katy (Vitek) and a long service run from Jakayla (Reese) and it really helped us solidify this win.”
Burton had high praise for senior Katy Vitek after a stellar performance in Tuesday’s game.
“She is a stick of dynamite,” Burton said. “She walks the walk, she leads a Christian life and leads us in prayer and bible study on Saturday mornings, something we call Jesus and juice, and she is our girl that brings our message together and is a complete inspiration to the team.”
Burton also talked about another senior on the team Mattie Wilkie, who was named Homecoming Queen for Granger Friday night.
“She is our silent leader, she just goes and does and executes,” Burton said. “It is kind of like a ‘follow me, I am going to bring us and it is going to be fine’ everybody looks to her to just recenter themselves. We had a meeting the other day and all the girls looked at her and said ‘I can come to you and get that little bit of energy to bring me right back to the center to be a team again.’” The Lady Lions offense played better and better as the match went along Tuesday night, but Burton said in the playoffs they are going to have to be a little bit more aggressive.
“Our message going forward is working on our offense, to develop a little bit more quick offense on the plays that we can,” Burton said. “Know that we can’t do it on all of them but the ones that we can, we have to be more aggressive on the net. Maybe take a second, hit and attack.”
Burton said her team will probably be matched up with Mumford, who the Lady Lions have played twice so far this season. Mumford has won the first two, but Burton expects it to be a closer game and a win if her team executes like they should.
