Lady Mustangs fall to Lady Beavers in four sets

The Nixon-Smiley Lady Mustangs returned home for the first home match of the 2024 volleyball season against the Falls City Lady Beavers Tuesday, Aug. 20.

Nixon-Smiley and Falls City took it to four sets, and the Lady Mustangs battled hard against Falls City despite the struggles in the match.

“I thought we came out and struggled a little bit in the first set, tried to make some adjustments on defense, talked about some things that we could do better to produce attacks on offense, and I thought they executed much better the second game,” Lady Mustangs head volleyball coach Loraine Yates said.

Falls City handed the Lady Mustangs their first home loss in four sets (17-25, 25-18, 15-25, 13-25).

The Lady Mustangs kept fighting in the third and fourth sets of the match, but dealt with missed serves and point streaks by Falls City.

“I think that overall, the rotations that we're working on, we're able to get some of the younger girls some experience and get them going,” Yates said.

The crowd from the home side was an advantage for the Lady Mustangs and Yates appreciates having that home-court advantage and complimented the Falls City fans, too.

“It was exciting. I thought the atmosphere was good from both sides. We had, you know, our fans here that were supporting our girls, and then the Falls City fans. So I think the atmosphere was great. I like that kind of atmosphere, and so did the girls. So it felt good to be playing our first home game,” Yates said.

The Lady Mustangs will go back on the road Friday, Aug. 23 for their second tournament of the season in Beeville and Yates knows what her team will be up against.

“We'll be going up against some 3A and 4A schools. To prepare the next couple days, we're going to be rewatching some film, looking at where we can correct ourselves on defense, and then just putting in the reps on offense, so that whenever we do get the opportunity to produce on offense, then we can, with an attack.” Yates said.

The Lady Mustangs will have a bye Tuesday, Aug. 27.