Junior middle blocker Landry Bullock paved the way for a Lady Lions victory over the Lady Eagles of North Carolina Central University. Bullock recorded 16 kills against the Lady Eagles. 

The Lion’s Roar / Elizabeth Brown

The Lady Lions travelled to the east coast this past weekend to take on three different teams during the Gamecock Invitational. Despite two consecutive losses in the beginning of the tournament, the Lady Lions finished strong in their final game against North Carolina Central University. 

In their season-opening game of the Gamecock Invitational on August 28 at 6:00 p.m., the Lady Lions took a crushing blow from the University of South Carolina’s Gamecocks, finishing 0-3 from their three sets, 25-17, 25-18 and 25-12. In the first set, the Lady Lions started with a 2-0 lead with two serves made by junior outside hitter Madi Odom, but shortly after the Gamecocks took the lead and stayed on top for the remainder of the match, finishing 25-17. 

Following a timeout, the Gamecocks made three more points, changing the score to 3-8 then to 3-9, the Lady Lions scored four points with the help of a kill made by senior right sider Tiffany Thomas, a service ace made by senior defensive specialist Brooke Balser and a kill made by junior middle blocker and outside hitter Landry Bullock. Although the score, 7-9, was close at this point, the Gamecocks added three more consecutive points to the score, putting their team farther, 7-12. Both teams continued to go back and forth with adding points to the score until the end when the Gamecocks added two final points to the score, finishing the set. 

In the second set, the Lady Lions started off stronger with multiple kills made by junior outside hitter and right sider Parrie Hartley and two service aces made by senior setter Mikayla Shippy, putting them ahead 8-3. Following this lead, the Gamecocks started to catch up to the Lady Lions, bringing them to a score of 10-7. The Gamecocks continued to improve their score until the end of the game, and the Lady Lions never recovered. 

Going into the third set, both teams continued to go back and forth with adding points to the score until the Gamecocks took a major leap of 3-10. The Lady Lions tried to take the lead with kills made by Odom, Bullock, Hartley, Thomas and senior middle blocker Veronica Turk but were unsuccessful in making headway. 

In their second game of the Invitational, the Lady Lions faced North Carolina State University the following day, August 29, at 9:00 a.m. The Lady Lions started off on top in their beginning set with their first point being made by freshman defensive specialist Monica Ramon with a service ace. The team continued to lead with errors made by the Wolfpack and kills made by Odom, Shippy and Bullock until North Carolina started to come back, eventually gaining and staying in the lead toward the end of the set, finishing 17-25. 

In the second set, the Lady Lions were never able to gain the lead, coming close a few times with kills made by Thomas, Bullock, Hartley, Turk and Haley Baker, freshman setter, and a service ace made by freshman defensive specialist Macey Stock, finishing the set again at 17-25. 

In the third set, the Wolfpack gained a starting lead of 1-7 and continued their vast lead until an error was made, which gave the Lady Lions the chance to come back with points made throughout the game with kills by Odom and Bullock and service aces by Thomas and senior middle blocker and right sider Shelby Devlin, but the Lady Lions were not able to gain the lead at any point throughout the set, leaving them at 19-25 at the end of the set and 0-3 at the end of the game against the Wolfpack. 

Later in the day at 3:00 p.m., the Lady Lions took on the North Carolina Central University Eagles for their final game of the invitational. In the opening, the Lady Lions took the lead with a kill made by Bullock, followed by kills made by Shippy and Turk, keeping them ahead 5-3 then 6-4. The Lady Lions continued to stay in the lead with kills made by Turk, Shippy and Bullock, and a service ace made by Ramon, putting them at 10-6. Junior middle blocker Rachael Bunn’s kill and Shippy’s service ace put the team further ahead at 13-7. Following this, Bullock and Thomas made kills, continuing to keep the team further ahead of the Eagles at 15-8. Continuous kills and service aces allowed the team to stay ahead throughout the set, making this set their first victorious set of the season, 1-0. 

The second set, the Eagles started off with a 6-1 lead until the Lady Lions started to come back with kills made by Bullock and Odom and a service ace made by Thomas, putting the score at 5-9. The score remained close until a service ace made by Bunn put the team ahead, 16-15. From that point on, the Lady Lions remained in the lead until the end of the set, finishing at 25-21. 

The Eagles started off with a four point lead in the final set, but it did not last when the Lady Lions took the lead and continued to lead with the help of multiple service aces by Odom, Thomas and Ramon and kills by Bullock and Turk, putting the score at 19-13. From there, the Lady Lions continued to lead to the end of the set, finishing at 25-15, making this game against the Eagles the team’s first victory of the season. 

Despite their first two losses of the season, Head Coach Jim Smoot felt that the Lady Lions did well in their final game of the tournament. 

“I think they finished really strong because they’re enthused and we took advantage of [Central’s] weaknesses,” said Smoot. “Our serving was excellent and having come back from two losses is not an easy task, but they did a great job.” 

As for performance, next game Smoot wants to see improvements. 

“Passing needs to be more consistent so we can run our offense and we need to speed up our attackers,” said Smoot. 

Bullock was named to the all-tournament team due to her performance throughout the weekend, finishing the NCW game with a season high of 16 kills.

Smoot felt that Bullock did really well in the tournament in her performance.

“Several people played well at different times throughout the tournament; Bullock had an outstanding tournament and she led the team in kills and was really effective as an outside attacker.” 

Up next for the Lady Lions is a game in Hattiesburg, Mississippi against the University of Southern Mississippi tonight at 6:00 p.m. For more information on the team, visit lionsports.net.