Lakeland High School’s boys’ and girls’ volleyball teams split matches against a non-conference opponent on Thursday.

The Lady Cavs lost in three sets on the road Thursday evening against Denbigh High School. The boys won their match.

Fatigue might have played a factor in the way the Lady Cavs played, with Thursday night’s match being the third they’ve played this week.

“The girls fought hard out there,” Lady Cavs coach Michael Cooke said. “We did take a step back on some things we had currently been doing well at. We want to make sure we are improving every game.”

LHS made mistakes, such as not getting their first serve over, while also at times not communicating well. Though the Lady Cavs didn’t win a set, each game was extremely close.

“This one game we felt slipped away from us,” Cooke said. “Denbigh is a good team. We are competitive, and if we had done the things that we had been doing well recently I think we would have gotten a different result.”

Not only was that the third match this week for Lakeland High School but it was also the second road match of the week for them. In the previous match, the Lady Cavs took a loss to rival Suffolk school Nansemond River.

For the boy’s team, the win against Denbigh was second win in a row this week. The Cavs were intense from the beginning of the game until the end and didn’t seem to be slowed down by the three matches played this week.

They got off to a much better start Thursday night than they did against Nansemond River on Tuesday evening. They held Denbigh to a high of 16 games in a set.

“The guys played well out there with minimal errors,” coach Tarijuana Napoleon said. “I was proud of them; they came off of a less than par win to playing to their potential and not let winning get to their heads.”

Napoleon was impressed with her team’s ability to push through three games and finish the week strong.

“My players have a goal in mind,” Napoleon said. “I don’t expect anything less, just like they don’t of themselves.”

The Lady Cavs will take the weekend off. Both teams have three games to play next week, as well, starting with a Conference 27 game home against Booker T. Washington on Monday. The girls will play at 4 p.m., and the boys will follow at 5:30 p.m.

 

Girls’ volleball

Lakeland 0, Denbigh 3

(21-25, 16-25, 20-25)

Bri Raisor:3 blocks, 4 kills

Kayla Barnes: 3 kills, 4 aces, 11 service points

Makayla Bynum: 3 sets, 7 service points, 1 ace

Meagan Patterson: 3 sets, 7 service points, 1 ace

 

Boys’ volleyball

Lakeland 3, Denbigh 0

(25-16, 25-12, 25-13)

Hunter Rawls: 7 kills 3 aces

Kyle Stuart: 20 assists

Joseph Crouell: 6 kills,

Peter Bowyer: 8 aces, 3 digs