The Lady Lions finished 13-18 last season, which was their best season since 2004. Under fourth year Head Coach Jim Smoot, the Lady Lions have made back-to-back Southland Conference Tournament appearances. Seven players are returning from the roster last season  and four of them are seniors: Parrie Hartley, Madi Odom, Rachael Bunn and Landry Bullock, who is the captain of the team. The Green & Gold scrimmage is played every year so the team can find out where they are before the season starts. The new players on the team setter Elyssa Purcell, middle blockers Savannah Alcazar, Emily Waddell, Jodi Edo and outside hitter Chloee Holden all got their first chance to play in the University Center.
The Lion's Roar/Kelonda Dixon

The Lady Lions volleyball team held their annual Green and Gold scrimmage with Gold winning two of the three sets (25-14, 20-25, 25-23).

The Green and Gold scrimmage was played last Wednesday before the first game of the season against Southern. The game is played to give players a chance to warm up before the season and to give fans their first look at the team.

“I was really impressed with the team tonight,” said Landry Bullock, senior middle blocker. “The first game, the gold team really dominated. But, they’re still my teammates so it was really nice to see them come out in full force ready to play.”

Even though it was a scrimmage against teammates, the game remained competitive.

“I was like ‘ooh we got to get our team together now,’” said Bullock. “So, we took the break and talked about it, and the green team brought the heat in the second game. It was fun to battle back and forth with it and see everyone in action instead of just in practice.”

Volleyball head coach Jim Smoot merely observed the scrimmage and left the coaching to assistant coaches Emilyn Barker and Morgan Todd. Smoot liked the scrimmage, but thinks there is some room for improvement.

“Well, I thought the energy was too great on the first two sets,” said Smoot. “But, the third set was a lot better, they picked it up. A lot of good things happened, but my main concern is that both teams hit negative with 49 hitting errors. So, we got to work on that. You cannot hit negative and expect to win.”

Savannah Alcazar freshman middle blocker, got some playing time on both teams and led all players with 12 kills. Madi Odom senior outside hitter, helped team gold with seven kills while Bullock led team green with five kills.

Sophomore setter Haley Baker led team green with 17 assists and redshirt freshman setter Elyssa Purcell dished out 15 assists.

Six players had double-digit digs. Macey Stock, a sophomore defensive specialist had 18 digs for team green while senior outside hitter Parrie Hartley posted 17 digs for team gold.

Senior middle blocker Rachael Bunn set a match record with four solo blocks and had seven blocks overall.

“It has been a great mesh of the new kids with the seniors we have,” said Smoot. “And that has really worked out right from the start. The first week we were playing six on six and it look like we had been playing together for years so that is good to see.”

This game marked the first time the new court or scoreboard in the University Center has been used for a game since they have been placed.

“It looks great,” said Smoot. “Got a lot of great compliments from the people who came to watch the match. It just classies up the place, it looks beautiful. They have done a great job.”

The players liked the atmosphere, the new court and scoreboard created for the game and for every home game this season.

“It is so awesome,” said Bullock. “We walked in there on the first day of practice, and we were like ‘This is what we get to play on’ so it was really cool. It just makes you feel better as a player. The school is behind us. We got this awesome new court and this great new scoreboard. We can actually see the score now. So it is just really nice to have athletics behind us and everything.”

 

The Lady Lions finished 13-18 last season, which was their best season since 2004. Under fourth year Head Coach Jim Smoot, the Lady Lions have made back-to-back Southland Conference Tournament appearances. Seven players are returning from the roster last season  and four of them are seniors: Parrie Hartley, Madi Odom, Rachael Bunn and Landry Bullock, who is the captain of the team. The Green & Gold scrimmage is played every year so the team can find out where they are before the season starts. The new players on the team setter Elyssa Purcell, middle blockers Savannah Alcazar, Emily Waddell, Jodi Edo and outside hitter Chloee Holden all got their first chance to play in the University Center.
The Lion's Roar/Kelonda Dixon