The East Jackson Lady Eagles volleyball team continues to seek its first area win of the season after losses last week to Athens Academy, Jefferson and Prince Avenue Christian.
East Jackson was scheduled to travel to North Oconee Tuesday for a varsity quad-match with North Oconee, Athens Christian, and Greene County. Results of that match were unavailable at press time. Check www.mainstreetnewssports.com for scores and updates throughout the week.
The Lady Eagles will travel to Cedar Shoals Thursday to face the Lady Jaguars, as well as Loganville. Game time is 5 p.m.
Tuesday
On Sept. 9, the Lady Eagles first faced Athens Academy, coming away with an 0-2 loss, losing 10-25 in the first set and 5-25 in the second.
“We played much better against Athens Academy than we had earlier in the season, but we still aren’t consistent enough to play with them like we should,” said coach Tim Thomas.
Against Jefferson that night, the Eagles lost 11-25 in the first set and 12-25 in the second.
“We did extremely well early against Jefferson and jumped out to a big lead but let them come back,” Thomas said. “Again, we lacked consistency, especially in receiving their serves. We’ve known all along we wouldn’t be very strong up on the net so if we’re going to be competitive that back row is really going to have to pick up their game, and right now they’re just not doing that.”
Thursday
The Lady Eagles were competitive against Prince Avenue, fighting back from a 19-16 deficit in the first set. But East Jackson came up a bit short, losing 19-25.
“We just lost our will to win down the stretch,” Thomas said.
The second set didn’t go as well, as the Lady Eagles lost 10-25, giving Prince Avenue a 2-0 win in the match.
Hard Work
Thomas said the greatest weakness the team has right now is in leadership.
“We’ve got no seniors and our top player is probably going to miss the entire season due to injury,” he said. “We’ve needed one or two of those juniors to step up and provide some leadership and give us some stability. But it just hasn’t happened.
“Right now our sophomores are carrying us, and that’s not the kind of dynamic a winning team needs. Those more experienced players need to step it up big-time.”
One positive note, Thomas said, the East Jackson JV team is proving to be exciting. It lost both matches Tuesday and one on Thursday, but all three were very close.
“They could easily be 3-0 right now instead of 0-3,” he said. “It’s very exciting to watch them play. They love the game and they know how to have a good time and play with heart. A lot of it is due to their youth, but Coach Marlana Meehan deserves a lot of credit for that too.”
