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The Rice Lady Raiders hosted the Weimar Ladycats for an exhibition game on Friday, August 8, at Rice Consolidated High School.
The game served as a tune-up for both teams and gave them a chance to knock off some more rust and get ready for tournament play which starts this coming week.
No score was kept although the both the Lady Raiders Head Coach Morgan Hunter and Ladycats Head Coach Amanda Machicek probably kept score. Mostly though they were focused on making sure their team was executing their systems correctly.
There were no referees present so pace of play was a little different than a normal UIL volleyball game. But the pacing of the game was actually extremely beneficial for both teams.
Both coaches were not necessarily stopping the game per say but they did slow the game down and teach their players what they are doing wrong at certain points during the game. There was no yelling and screaming from the coaches they would talk and the players would listen then play would resume.
Both teams showed flashes of their potential and both were equally interesting to see for different reasons.
On the Lady Raiders side it was interesting to see the type of energy they would bring to the court with a new coach. They came out a little slow but once they started getting settled into the game things got much better for the Lady Raiders.
They started scoring consecutive points and communicating with one another and put together some really strong rallies during the scrimmage. They looked a little bit more consistent than last season as well which is a positive sign for a team looking to turn things around.
On the Ladycats side, they have a well establ ished and successful coach in coach Machicek who has been there for a while. Her players know what she expects but she lost a lot of talented seniors last season.
It was interesting to watch the Ladycats in this scrimmage because it was time to see who was going to step up and fill the roles that the seniors left. One player did not stick out in this regard but multiple players stood out.
Jaiya Cook, Zariah Sims, Janiyah Cooper, Skylar Rhodes and Madison Luckey all showed their leadership abilities during the scrimmage. They were vocal on the court they were talking to the underclassmen about what their assignment is and where to go on the court.
They also dominated on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball as they came up with multiple big time digs and powerful spikes.
While this game does not effect the win-loss ratio for these teams they were able to learn a lot about themselves before enter tournament play this week.
