hosted Snook High School Aug. 27 at Lions Gym and won in four sets by a score of 25-22, 27-25, 20-25, 25-22.
Each set was close and the Lady Lions found ways to grind out wins in three out of the four sets with timely points and clutch hitting. "We've had a really good start to the year," said Fayetteville head volleyball coach Clint Jaeger. "It always feels good to win games. We know we want to win two months from now. We want to win now, but those are the more important ones. Tonight was just a battle. Feisty and we were battling too. It was just a bunch of battles of will. Who wasn't gonna let the ball hit the ground. We just finished playing them Saturday, so they knew our players and scouted us, so they came out and played better today. Much better win."
Fayetteville sophomore hitter Lainey Gromaski notched 12 kills for the outing and came up with some big points in the later sets. "I just had to fix up some stuff I need to work on," Gromaski said. "Just go out there and do the best I can. Communicate with my setter and all that." Fayetteville and Snook went back and forth throughout the entire first set as Snook took their biggest lead at 22-19 other than taking a 3-0 lead in the beginning of the set. The Lady Lions bounced back and scored six-consecutive points on a variety of ways, which included a set-winning ace from sophomore Emily Keilers to seal it at 25-22.
It was a similar scenario in the second set, even though Snook was able to hold it's lead for the majority. Snook had a 23-19 lead until Fayetteville climbed back yet again with four points in a row, which included a block and a tip ball to tie it at 23 and force Snook to call a timeout. The two teams traded the next three points putting it at 25-25, then a ball out of bounds from Snook and a tip ball from the Lady Li ons won Fayetteville the set 27-25.
The third set was a little more in Snook's favor with Fayetteville still putting on a strong showing. A serve in the net from Fayetteville made it 10-6 in favor of Snook until Snook had a ball in the net of their own on a serve that tied it at 12 a few points later.
Another ball in the net from Fayette ville put it at 17-14, then a kill and ace from Snook was followed by a mishit from the Lady Lions for a 20-15 lead for Snook and a Fayetteville timeout. A couple mistakes later in the set from Snook put Fayetteville back within reach at 22-20 before a ball out of bounds from Fayetteville and two aces in a row from the Lady Bluejays won them the set 25-20.
Fayetteville took a way bigger lead to start the fourth set with a 9-4 advantage on a bunch of kills and an ace from junior Devynn Moeckel. After another ace from Keilers and a 13-6 lead, Snook called timeout and even after the time out, Fayetteville was able to maintain their edge with a few mistakes from Snook and some points of their own mixed in to make it 1711. Snook was able to battle back with more points and capitalized on some miscues from Fayetteville to make it 20-18, then Fayetteville closed it out with two more aces from Keilers, a kill from Gromaski, and another kill from Gromaski for the set and match point at 25-22.
