Longhorns win a few, lose a few in volleyball action

The first few matches for the Lady Longhorns this season have been a roller coaster ride of successes and failures. After a rough start in the season opening Jamboree, Johnson County bounced back with a huge win over Unicoi County last weekend’s Elizabethton Invitational Tournament. The rest of the event didn’t go quite as well, with the Lady Longhorns battling but coming up short against both Cherokee and Volunteer and handed a tough defeat by West Greene.
With only Sunday to serve as a break, Johnson County rolled into their first two official matches at home Monday and Tuesday, with the results again being very mixed. “Consistency is our issue right now,” said Head Coach Donna Poteet. “We’ve got to get in the gym and focusing on the things we did well and also look at those mental errors that we’re making. We make a heck of a play sometimes and then come up and mess up something that’s unforced. We’re up and then we’re down, but I think experience will help that. Our struggle is being consistent. We’ve got to get in the gym and work on it so that we don’t lose our focus after making a tough play.”
Monday’s match was against the Lady Golden Eagles from Tri-Cities Christian and with three back-to-back losses proved to be an extremely difficult opponent to overcome. Whether the problem was first match jitters or simply the amount of skill that Tri-Cities showed on the court was debatable, but Coach Poteet seemed to believe it was a little of both. “It was our first home game,” Poteet reiterated. “It took us a good while to get over our nerves and we just never got that groove going. We ended up standing around a lot and that killed us.”
The opposition didn’t get any better Tuesday as the Lady Longhorns did their best to keep up with the Lady Rebels from Sullivan South. Although trailing through all three games, Johnson County performed quite a bit better against South, at times going into long rallies that highlighted their potential to improve and excel.

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