It was close, but no cigar for the Altoona-Midway Middle School volleyball team as both the varsity and junior varsity squads fell in three sets to the Pleasanton Lady Blu-Jays here Thursday afternoon.
In the varsity matchup, the Lady Jets dropped the first set 23-25, rallied to win 25-20 to force a deciding third set, where Pleasanton prevailed 15-10.
It was almost an identical scenario in the junior varsity tilt, as Pleasanton managed to post a narrow 25-13, 19-25, 15-7 win.
“Even though the scoreboard didn’t show us with a win, the girls probably played their best or second best night of volleyball this season,” said AMMS head coach Marci Henderson. “We were setting up spikes, moving and shaking things up. Makayla Wood and Emma Martin worked really well together, and we had some big time serves as well.” In the exciting varsity match, Martin smashed an impressive 23 hits over the three sets, while Alaura Maple and Heather Lane also reached double digits in hits with 11 and 10, respectively.
Wood and Summer Raymond accounted for eight hits apiece, and also were the top passers for the Lady Jets as Wood notched 16 and Raymond added a dozen.
AMMS had a very balanced serving attack. Raymond paced the Lady Jets with 10, Martin and Lane recorded nine serves apiece, while Wood added eight and Maple six. Raymond and Martin were each also credited with two tips.
In junior varsity action, Ava Hufford recorded seven serves and five passes for AMMS. Autumn Raymond and Anna Beckwith added six serves each and Olivia Goodwin had five and Emma Pupanek notched four. Beckwith led the way with five hits.
“We need to work on consistently talking to each other, both on the varsity and JV level, but I’m proud of them,” Henderson noted.
The Lady Jets (3-4), will travel to Colony on Thursday, Sept. 20, to face Crest Middle School.