The Fayetteville High School volleyball team won their first game of the season against Hempstead High School August 8 at Lions Gym two sets to one in tournament play. The Lady Li- ons struggled to find their mojo in the first set, then eventually settled in for the remainder of the match and took the last two sets. “We got a lot of moving parts, a lot of different pieces than last year,” said Fayetteville head volleyball coach Clint Jaeger.
“People playing different positions, so it’s a work in progress and we’re getting used to one another, building some chemistry out on the court. Trying a lot of people, so it may take a while. We may struggle at first, but I know we’ll get together and we did that as that match went through. We got better, so I think we just need more time on the court together.”
Lady Lions senior outside hitter Kayme Schley notched 16 kills for the night and was very effective on the offensive end. “It’s a totally different team this year,” Schley said. “I think we’re just looking to work together as a team. We don’t have Brooklyn (Jaeger) who can just dominate when we’re down, so we’re just looking to communicate, do the best we can, and just make sure we work as a big unit and as a team this year.”
The two teams traded points for the entirety of the first set, mostly on hitting errors with some kills, tips, and a couple aces mixed in. The set went to extra points and Hempstead won on back-to-back aces for a 27-25 win.
After going back and forth again early in the second set, Fayetteville pulled away with four-straight points, which included two hitting errors from Hempstead followed by an ace and a block from the Lady Lions to make it 10-4. Fayetteville went on another run later in the set for a 20-7 scoreboard on a tip ball from senior Peyton Jurecka, then another ace and a kill from Schley. Schley added a two more kills in the set before an ace sealed the second set for the Lady Lions at 25-11.
The third set was evenly matched at 6-6 until three points in a row from Fayetteville forced the Lady Bobcats to call a timeout. Fayetteville then didn’t look back and scored the rest of the points for the match on two tip balls from Jurecka, an ace from sophomore Devynn Moeckel, and a kill from Schley that to set up a ball out of bounds by Hempstead to win the set and match 15-6.
