The Lady Lions returned home this Friday night to add another conference game to their winning streak making it 4-0. Friday’s game against the Truett Lady Bears was the first of two that the Lady Lions will have this weekend.
The Lions took control of the game from the very beginning in the first set causing Truett’s coach to use his two timeouts in the first 12 points. Bryan sealed the deal on the first set with a hustle play from Alison Knop (Sophomore OPP) on the right side, and a massive block from Canaan Drake (Freshman MH) to put the Lions at 25-13.
Truett battled back in the second set and made sure that the Lions didn’t get above a 2 point lead with the final score coming out in Truett’s favor at 25-22.
The third set was as close as the second to begin, but the Lions blazed ahead to put Gigi Ford (Junior OH) in the position for an 8 point serving rally. Bryan was put in serve receive on their game point but got out of the serve by crushing Truett’s defense with a powerful swing from all-star of the night, Abby Rector (Sophomore OH).
The fourth and final set was a clean finish to the evening with consistent celebration from the Lions. The last play had a scrappy off-block pick up from Sarah Moore (Sophomore OPP) to Ford to finish it off with a powerful joust on the net carrying the Lions to a 25-11 win.
The Lions docked 50 kills led by Rector with 12 and Moore with 9, and 14 service aces led by Anna Cain (Junior MB) with half.
Ford gathered 15 digs along with Jaleigh Rogan (Senior DS,L) at 14.
The Lady Lions are set to play on Saturday, September 18th at 11:00 a.m. against Brenau in Summers Gym.
We spoke with Coach Day before the match started on what was expected of the Lions in their 4th conference game of the season. Day made mention of their conference game against Truett last year that ended in a five-set brawl with Bryan pulling out a win. Friday night was the only time Bryan will play Truett before the conference tournament and Truett’s team has changed since last year, so Day stressed the importance of the expectation of anything to happen on the court.
After the game, we spoke with Alison Knop about her experience on the court during the game. Knop praised the overall grit of the team, “Whenever we got down we fought really hard to bring it back up,”. Knop sang Rector’s praises by mentioning her many kills that she “put a crater in the ground on some of her hits”. When looking at the next game Saturday morning, Knop encouraged a “no letting up” mentality for the team.
Ashlynn Akiona is a current Freshman at Bryan College, and is majoring in Communications. She is a part of the volleyball team here at Bryan, and an avid “Smokey Mountain Fudge” ice cream fan. Ashlynn enjoys spending time with her dog Teddy, hiking, thrifting, photography, and watching all kinds of movies.
