Roller coaster opener

The Weatherford Lady Roos got a tough, early-season test on Tuesday at home playing Nolan Catholic.

The Lady Vikings were able to win the five-set match 3-2 as the Lady Roos team let a 2-1 lead slip away.

Weatherford is featuring a young and inexperienced team this season, having only two seniors and several new move-ins.

The first set saw Weatherford make a break midway through, extending its 16-14 lead to 20-15. From there the Lady Roos were able to close the set strong, winning 25-18.

That momentum did not extend to the start of the second set. Nolan Catholic jumped out to a 9-1 lead as the Lady Roos committed too many self-inflected errors. 

The lead was similar for most of the set as the Lady Vikings led 20-10 and looked to close. Weatherford had a good run to close the set despite losing in the end, making the final a respectable 25-18.

That momentum to end the set came in handy for the Lady Roos. They jumped out to an early and big lead with scores of 9-1 and later 20-10. Weatherford closed the third set dominantly 25-13 to go up 2-1.

The Lady Roos were feeling really good about themselves at the beginning of the fourth set after going up 4-1. Nolan Catholic rebounded and were trailing a closely contested set 13-12 before going on an 8-2 run to go up 20-15.

Weatherford charged back, tying the score at 21 and had a chance to serve for the match up 25-24. The Lady Vikings won the next three points to win the set 27-25 and tie the match at 2-2.

In the fifth and final set, the Lady Roos twice bounced back from two-point deficits as the score was tied at 10. Weatherford caught a bad case of nerves at the wrong time as several hitting errors led to Nolan Catholic winning the next five points, and taking the set 15-10 and the match 3-2.

Ava Broadie led the Lady Roos with 17 kills and three blocks while Laine Tomlinson was right behind her with 16 kills. Joy Versola recorded 22 assists and Natalie Griffin was right behind her with 20. Griffin and Tomlinson added three service aces each.

On defense, libero Hayden Faught recorded a team-high 24 digs and Tomlinson was second with 14. At the net, Broadie had a team-high three blocks.

Coach Courtney Hammett said she was not pleased with her team’s hitting errors and knows ironing it all out will just take some time for her young team.

“There were a lot of first-game jitters from our young crew,” Hammett said. “Some of the errors we had were nerves. We had a lot of uncharacteristic moments behind the service line some of my better servers don’t have. Between the new faces from JV and new faces outside of our district, there was just a lot of first=game jitters and learning how to play with each other.”

The Lady Roos will gain more experience this weekend heading to their first tournament all the way in Georgetown on Aug. 13-15. Next week Weatherford is scheduled to play at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 18 at Frisco Heritage.