Perry splits matches with Crisp and Houston County

PERRY, Ga. – The Perry Lady Panthers played host to both the Crisp County Lady Cougars and county rival Houston County Lady Bears on Tuesday, splitting the matches with each.

Though they’re rivals, the Lady Panthers and Lady Bears have something in common, as each of their coaches come from former Houston County coach Maria Huelsman’s coaching tree.

Lady Panthers coach Jamie Stewart stated that her team worked hard during the off-season and is looking forward to the start of the season; She also said that when her team is having fun, they play extremely well.

The Lady Panthers are returning four seniors but many of the underclassmen have varsity experience, and they needed that experience as they battled in their match with Crisp County, winning two sets to one.

In the first set, Crisp County jumped out to lead the Lady Panthers by five or six points most of the set.

The Lady Panthers finally tied the first set at 20 but a couple of unforced errors allowed Crisp County to jump to a 23-21 lead, not looking back until the set was completed with at 25-23. This was they only set victory that Crisp County had Tuesday night.

The second set was not much different for both squads as they went on four and five point runs with the Lady Panthers capturing the victory of the set at 25-21, forcing a third set.

The Lady Panthers started the third set scoring the first seven points but Crisp County caught up to trail 7-6.

However, the Lady Panthers were able to make small two and three point runs to push the lead further as they won the set 17-15 and captured the match win.

The Lady Panthers were led by outstanding set plays by Emma Smith and defense in the back row with their libero Hailee Hudson flowing around the back court, making many saves.

The second match for Crisp County was a battle to stay close to Houston County, but everything worked for Houston County and they beat Crisp County 25-9 in both sets.

Houston County was able to feed their outside hitters with both backrow and sets by Harley Tye Mitchell and libero Sarah Dunford to score the points.

Houston County got servers back immediately on many occasions on side outs when Crisp County was serving.

Although Houston County won the match in two sets, the Lady Panthers battled them through both sets. Houston County won the first set 25-14, but it was much closer than the score made it seem.

The Lady Panthers were not able to score points consecutively; on the flip side, Houston County was clicking coming off of their victory over Crisp County.

Houston County won the second set 25-16 and ended the Lady Panthers evening.

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