Lady Lobos soaking up non-district success

The Little Elm volleyball team has already tripled its win total from all of last season. Perspective: the squad only notched one victory in 2007.

The Lady Lobos went 2-4 over the weekend in the Denton Ryan Tournament and followed that up Tuesday by splitting with Bonham and Greenville. Head coach Becky Phillips believes the team’s mental makeup is to credit for the early signs of life in non-district play.

“They hate to lose more than they love to win,” she said. “They lose a match and are still mad the next day.”

The hatred for losing still needs to be paired with learning to win. After taking the first two games from Greenville on Tuesday at home, Little Elm couldn’t put the Lionettes away with any semblance of urgency. Though they eventually won by four points in the fifth game, it nearly equated to a valuable lesson: opponents that hang around often wiggle out of the noose.

“We still get to the point where we are shocked we’re about to win in three (games),” Phillips said. “We have to realize we’re that good.”

One particularly telling statistic thus far is four-point runs by the opponent. When the Lady Lobos allow a team to go on a stretch of four straight points or more, they are winless. Conversely, during the three victories no opponent has strung together more than three consecutive points in any one game.

“It boils down to not letting the opponent get momentum,” Phillips said. “We will outhustle anybody.”

In spite of the subpar record in the first tournament of the season, Phillips was pleased with her team’s point totals. The Lady Lobos consistently registered 20-22 points in the losses and were never held to single digits in any of the 21 games they played. Chelsea Bartz, who Phillips said accounts for at least four points each game, was away on a mission trip and may have allowed the squad to get by Princeton in pool play.

Bonham held Little Elm to just eight points in the opening game Tuesday, but that was due to the unveiling of a new defensive formation where libero Jordan Hurley moves to a different position on the back row and Shanea Johnson is free to roam the court to provide more quickness and athleticism. Following the initial setback, the team went on to win four of the next six games.

“I’m impressed with their competitiveness,” Phillips said.

Little Elm will play in Ft. Worth Christian’s 12th annual Preseason Invitational Tournament this weekend. The Lady Lobos will square off with three Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) opponents in pool play Friday before beginning bracket play Saturday. The tournament will be held at the Tejas Volleyball Complex inside the NYTEX Sports Centre in Birdville.

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