Valley completes season sweep over Lanett
BY DANIEL SCHMIDT
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
VALLEY — For the second time this season, Valley High School claimed a straight-sets victory over crosstown rivals Lanett High School, this time at VHS Ram Gymnasium on Sept. 16.
The Lady Rams (5-3) won Set 1 25-18, Set 2 25-19 and Set 3 25-12 over the Lady Panthers (1-7) in front of a thrilling, high-energy crowd.
After Valley started Set 3 with eight straight points, Lanett began slowly working its way back to try and at least force a fourth set.
However, the Lady Rams smothered any serious attempt and ran away with the result after seizing on several Lady Panthers miscues.
Valley head coach Demia Mitchell said getting and keeping momentum, like the momentum they had in that third set, is extremely important for her squad in particular.
“I always tell them, ‘Keep the momentum up, you guys are going to do great out there,’” Mitchell said. “I feel like as long as they go out there and communicate, do what they’re supposed to do and keep the momentum up, we’re always going to have a successful ending.”
According to Malie McManus, the Lady Rams have taken a more positive approach, and it’s started paying off real dividends for Valley.
“I feel like I did really good, I really laid my heart out there tonight,” McManus said. “We were really just hyping ourselves up and trying not to get down on each other because sometimes we do that a lot. But now, we’re trying to get better at that, we really just hyped each other up. There’s good energy all around.”
While there were no late-set surprises that had the Lady Rams sweating out results too much toward the end of each frame, Lanett’s ferocity still made Valley work hard.
“Lanett came in pretty hard too, but we wanted the win more,” Mitchell said. “I’m excited about the growth and improvement I’ve seen in the girls since our first game [against Beulah High School]. I love it.”
Lanett head coach Moesha Hicks said she was pleased with how the Lady Panthers fought until the final point against their larger rivals.
“Being a 2A school and having Valley as our rivals, it’s always very interesting to see them play,” Hicks said. “I think the girls fought to the end. It definitely wasn’t the result we wanted, but I’m still pleased with the effort.”
She added one of the most difficult aspects of coaching at a school as relatively small as Lanett is having to split players with other programs.
In particular, a fair number of the Lady Panthers’ players also play on the flag football team, which typically has at least one contest per week.
“[Sharing players with other sports at the same time] might be the most challenging thing with being at a smaller school,” Hicks said. “Our girls are extremely athletic, but they’re playing across sports, so being able to practice is extremely hard. Being in so many different sports makes it hard to just stick to volleyball.”
Valley faces off against Russell County High School (0-10) on the road in Seale on Thursday, Sept. 24, at 6 p.m. ET.
Lanett travels to New Site to take on Class 2A Area 12 foe Horseshoe Bend High School (8-2, 3-1) on Sept. 24 at 6:30 p.m. ET.
