Lady Vikes fend off Vicksburg in volleyball

Published 12:35 am Friday, August 23, 2024

By Ernest Bowker

Vicksburg High pushed Warren Central hard, but not hard enough to topple its biggest volleyball nemesis.

The Missy Gators won the second game and nearly took the third, then ran out of gas and lost 3-1 (25-15, 16-25, 25-23, 25-14) to the Lady Vikes on Thursday.

Warren Central (5-6, 1-0 MHSAA Region 2-6A) has won all 27 matches in the crosstown rivalry series since they both started their volleyball programs in 2011. This was only the fifth time that Vicksburg has won a game.

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“I thought (Vicksburg) came in with a real competitive nature,” Warren Central coach Matthew Gullet said. “We played the first set like we played against the best team in the state, and I think we got too comfortable. They didn’t. They came out determined that they were not going to go out like that and they fought a lot harder. They fought and they earned it. We got in our heads. They created doubt, and doubt led to mistakes.”

Warren Central won the first game easily, 25-15, and then Vicksburg caught fire in the next two. It built an 11-point lead late in the second game before closing out the 25-16 victory, then overcame an early five-point deficit in the third to take a 14-13 lead.

Excellent defense at the net thwarted a number of kill attempts by Warren Central, and were then turned into points for Vicksburg

“I changed out the players that I have. I usually have my starters and I wanted to switch something just to try. I tell them I want each of them to learn each position. We rotated around a little bit,” Vicksburg coach Linda Johnson said. “Makynzie Dunmore and Lili Kistler did really well at the net. They’re some of my good blockers.”

The second game was tied at 19-all when Warren Central regained the momentum. It scored five of the next seven points, then closed it out at 25-23 when a Vicksburg serve went long.

In the third game, the Lady Vikes jumped to a 5-1 lead and Vicksburg never really got back in it. Melissa Herrle’s spike from the right boundary landed in the middle of Vicksburg’s defense for the clinching point on the 25-14 victory.

“(Vicksburg) played some really tough defense. They were scrappy. I knew that going in. The coach at Pearl and I had talked and he mentioned ho scrappy this group was and how they played them over there,” he said. “Vicksburg played really well on defense and it frustrated us.”

Vicksburg (4-2, 1-1) lost for the second time in three matches, but is still off to a good start this season. It’ll face Warren Central again next Thursday, Aug. 29, on its home floor, and also has a home match vs. Neshoba Central on Tuesday.

“I think they got a little tired, a little frustrated. A lot of the players weren’t talking as much as they should have. But, hey, we’re going to come back and regroup again,” Johnson said.

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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