The Apollo E-gals have gone back-and-forth with victories and losses to start the season, but coach MaryAnne Howard hopes Tuesday’s 9th District win over Daviess County is a sign of things to come.
Apollo took down its the Lady Panthers 3-1 (25-18, 25-18, 14-25, 25-22) to grab their first district win of the season after the E-gals fell to Owensboro last week.
Howard said she thought they did a lot of things right during Tuesday’s match.
“Our emphasis since the start of the season has been focusing on consistency and not beating ourselves,” she said. “We’ve been making a lot of errors and I thought tonight, we cleaned up a lot of that. I thought our passing had really improved and serving and attacking. We cut down on a lot of our errors.”
Each team had multiple players with several kills, but it was the E-gals that were able to string enough together to win the match.
Howard said she thinks that makes her team harder to defend.
“I think it does make us difficult to defend because they can come at you from many different angles and I think we can catch defenses off guard,” she said. “That takes a lot of pressure off of any one hitter to do it all and I think we’re the kind of team that has to have a team effort.”
With all that’s happened this year, Howard said it’s still a work in progress when it comes to her team and that’s what she tells them as every team in the state was dealt the same hand.
“Usually in the preseason, starting in June, leading up to when the season starts, we probably play 35 summer camp matches or Bluegrass Games,” she said. “Without that, we’re kind of having to learn and improve and become a team in the season rather than in the preseason, so it’s kind of like things had to come together while we’re playing matches rather than before.”
Daviess County (1-1) plays Thursday against Hancock County before its first home match Saturday against Henderson County.
Apollo (2-2) plays Thursday at home against Meade County before hitting the road to play Henderson County on Friday. After Henderson, the E-gals’ next five matches come at home.
Howard said playing in a familiar place will help in bringing the team further along.
“I think that’s going to be huge for us to help us build a level of confidence, comfort and some chemistry,” she said. “There’s a lot of consistently playing at home that often.”
Apollo 3, Daviess County 1
DC (1-1) 18 18 25 22–1
AHS (2-2) 25 25 14 25–3
DC: Elizabeth Moore (20 kills, 7 digs, 2 blocks), Josie Newcom (10 kills, 3 digs, 2 aces), Jasmine Beasley (7 kills, 4 blocks, 2 aces, 2 digs), Adylan Ayer (6 kills, 3 blocks, 2 digs), Kloee Phelps (10 digs, 2 kills), Ryann Keller (29 assists, 4 digs, 4 blocks, 2 kills), Kendal Goetz (9 digs, 2 assists), Lexi Owen (11 assists, 2 aces)
AHS: Havanah John (11 kills), Aliyah Carwile (12 kills), Brylee Rhodes (7 kills, 3 blocks, 2 aces), Tallie Satterfield (6 kills), Maddie Boswell (32 assists, 2 aces), Anslee Hopewell (17 digs)
