Gainesville Lady Bulldogs win second place at Koshkonong tournament
submitted photo The Gainesville Lady Bulldogs took second place at the Koshkonong Lady Jays Invitational Volleyball Tournament Saturday, Aug. 31. Members of the team are, from left (front row) Addie Alms and Gentry Blackburn, who were both named to the all-tournament team; (back row) Head Coach Kenzee Ellison, Twyla Parkison, Allie Garrison, Addy Garrison, Lilly Winrod, Rylee Kowerduck, Baylor Hewett, Lilly Hejdak, team manager Karlie Cole, Coach Heidi Gaulding and team manager Avery Gaulding.
The Gainesville Lady Bulldogs high school volleyball team won their first tournament trophy of the season when they took second place at the first annual Koshkonong Lady Jays Invitational Volleyball Tournament, held Saturday, Aug. 31.
The Lady Bulldogs are building a winning season after their Aug. 29 victory at Mansfield, when they took the Lady Lions to five sets and came home with a win. JV also won over Mansfield as well.
The team has shown steady improvement since a rough start to the season at the Aug. 27 Mansfield Jamboree. In the Jamboree, Lady Bulldogs varsity team played two sets, facing off against Bradleyville first.
“In the first set, we started off a little rough...getting our first game jitters out,” Head Coach Kenzee Ellison said.
The Lady Bulldogs ended the match with a 21-10 loss, tossed to Bradleyville.
“We had some significant errors all around in that set and failed to get one solid attack,” Ellison explained.
In the second set, the girls ended play with a 21-16 loss, again with Bradleyville on top.
“The game play in this set was much better,” she said.
The JV team played one match against Bradleyville. They ended play 21-16 with the Bulldogs in the lead.
“The JV girls also started off with some jitters, but they managed to come out of it with a win,” Ellison said.
The varsity team played much better in their next match-up, against Seymour.
“We got our passing and setting under control and made far fewer serving errors to win the first set 21-19.”
The team lost the second set 21-17 and lost the third set 21-19.
“Finishing close matches has been a struggle for this group of girls in the last two years, so that's a big season goal for us,” she said. “Overall I'm pleased with their performance in some key areas, but the jamboree highlighted some major gaps in our movement into defense and our new rotation that we worked to address Wednesday in practice.”
The Lady Bulldogs hosted the Koshkonong Lady Jays in regular season play Tuesday. Results of that game were unavailable at press time.
Thursday, Sept. 5, the Lady Bulldogs will host the Dora Lady Falcons and on Friday, they host the Bradleyville Lady Eagles. Games begin at 5:30 p.m.