The quest for a third straight Sweet 16 – or hopefully deeper – has begun for the Lady Indians, who opened the season with a pair of wins over visiting Monroe Area and Stephens County on Tuesday evening.
In the opening win over Monroe Area, the Lady Indians raced out to a 9-1 lead. Kitty Rodenas’ ace got the scoring started, and Sarah Jennings recorded an early kill and back-to-back aces at serve as part of the run. The visitors pulled within 9-5 before a Sofia Rueda kill, followed by a pair of aces from Addy McCoy to get TFS up 13-5. Monroe Area had many unforced errors that aided the win for TFS. McCoy’s kill ended the set with Tallulah Falls taking the 25-12 opening set.
In the second set, a 25-15 TFS win, Rueda and Ashlyn Yaskiewicz recorded early kills as part of a comfortable 6-1 margin. That lead ballooned to 14-4 when Rueda, Skylyn Yaskiewicz, and Jennings recorded kills. Monroe Area pulled to within 19-12 with an impressive run, but an ace from Julianne Shirley ended the set and claimed the match for TFS. In the opening win, Jennings and Rueda had five kills apiece, while McCoy had four. Jennings had four aces as McCoy added a pair.
In the Stephens County match, the Lady Indians rolled up a 25-9 first-set win. McCoy’s kill and Jennings’ early ace got TFS up quickly. Plenty of Stephens errors led to a 9-3 Tallulah Falls score, forcing a timeout. Rueda had back-to-back kills later in the set, followed by back-to-back aces to push the lead up to 14-6. Elsa Sanchez had three aces in the set, and a pair of Rodenas aces polished off the set win.
The girls maintained momentum with a 25-11 similar second set. Stephens County bounced out to a 3-1 lead before the Lady Indians used a Jennings kill and ace to tie it up. Julianne Shirley did the same, putting TFS up for good. Jennings finished the second match with six kills and two aces, while Rodenas had five aces. McCoy tallied four kills, and Rueda had four aces and three kills.
TFS moves to 2-0 on the young season, and will return to action on Thursday in a road tri-match against host Hart County and Elbert County, the latter of which is now in the same region as Tallulah.
MATCH SCORES
W 2-0 vs Monroe Area: 25-12, 25-15
W 2-0 vs Stephens: 25-9, 25-11
