The Tioga Lady Bulldogs earned their eighth win of the season, sweeping the Valley View Lady Eagles three sets to none Tuesday evening.
The Lady Bulldogs hit the floor running, taking control of the match from the opening serve and never letting the Lady Eagles get off the ground.
“It’s a big win for us,” Trevin Robinson, Tioga head volleyball coach, said. “Right now, we’re trying to continue building momentum, and we had a really good tournament this past weekend, so the plan for us is to just try and keep getting better every day.'
The Lady Bulldogs exploded out of the gate in the match’s opening set, racking up the points to take the win 25-- Tioga continued its scoring barrage in the second and third sets, outscoring Valley View 50-25 in the game’s final two periods.
Senior middle blocker Kennedy Slay led the team with 11 kills, followed by senior outside hitter Kyndall Whitley, who had 8 kills.
Senior libero Bella Dennis led the defense with 15 digs, followed by Whitley, who had 11 digs, while junior setter Sadie Bates collected 15 assists.
“We’ve learned to work together, which is great because some people on the team are new, like me, but we’ve learned how to read each other’s movements and trust each other to make a good pass,” freshman outside hitter Lindsay David said. “And even if someone makes a mistake, we know they have it next time, and Coach Robinson trusts us to make it up.”
The win was made even more special, with two of the Lady Bulldogs, Dennis and Whitley, reaching career milestones.
Both Dennis and Whitley passed 500 career digs during their time with the team, and Whitley also passed 500 career kills.
'It's truly [fulfilling] to reach this goal,” Dennis said. “Starting sophomore year on varsity and being able to reach 500 career digs by my senior year is amazing, and it gives me hope that I can reach for an even higher milestone like 750 or 1,000 by the end of the year.”
Whitley also shared her thoughts on the special occasion.
“This definitely means a lot because my first two years started out pretty rough, but the amount of improvement my junior year and the start of this year have been crazy to me,” she said. “Coach Robinson and the encouragement from my teammates have been a big help.”
Robinson spoke highly of the duo. “I couldn’t be more proud of them,” he said. “They’re both captains, and they didn’t get those titles for no reason; they earned them. They come in every day, they go to work, and they are big pieces for what we’re trying to do this year. … They are leaders on and off the court, but on the court, they’re expected to dominate and win games, and they’re doing just that.”
The Lady Bulldogs were one win away from the state tournament last year, and Robinson said he has even higher hopes for the team in Year 2.
“We lost to a really good team last year, and the next day our seniors said we want to go to State,” he said. “You don’t see that as much at the smaller schools because the kids have other sports to play, but that’s been our focus from Day 1. … We may or may not reach that target, but we are going to be as prepared as we possibly can be so that whatever happens, we know we did everything we could, and every practice we’re building for that.”
The Lady Bulldogs are scheduled to hit the road to participate in the Fort Worth ISD Volleyball Tournament Thursday, Friday and Saturday before traveling to Sadler to face the S&S Consolidated High School Lady Rams at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
