Tigerette VB loses in five games to Vernon

VERNON – Trying to right the ship after a winless round one of district play, Jacksboro’s varsity volleyball squad came out with vigor and enthusiasm and fought their way through a five-game thriller .

Unfor t u n a t e l y, the results were the same, the Tigerettes leading 2-1 in the bestof- five match before falling 25-12, 21-25, 25-21, 19-25, 11-15 to the host Lady Lions Oct. 5 at Fulton Gym. Jacksboro slips to 0-7 in District 7-3A play while Vernon goes to 2-5 in the loop.

The game was moved to Wednesday because of a lack of officials.

The hostesses were without the services of Kenadi Brown, who had a dominating front court performance in the first meeting with Jacksboro Sept. 9, being out with a concussion. Vernon showed the effects of missing their top hitter in the early going.

The Tigerettes stormed back from an early 6-2 deficit in game one, sophomore Brailyn Tullous rolling off eight straight points to take an 11-6 lead. That effectively took the air out of Vernon’s balloon with Jacksboro using a serving pair from Lilli Perez and four-point strings from Ashlyn Nunley and Kylie Tullous to secure the opener in just 13 minutes.

It was the visitors who jumped out to an early lead in game two, Kylie Tullous and Avery Bennett serving the squad to a 5-1 lead. Vernon would come back to take an 11-10 lead. It was a four-point string from Mari Johnson to give the Lady Lions a 16-11 lead.

Jacksboro got within three twice but Vernon closed things out with a Johnson kill to even the match at a game each.

Kylie Tullous again had a strong serving start in game three, using kills from Rachael Chalmers and Erin Jonas to take a 4-0 lead. After Vernon knotted the game at four Bennett rolled off four straight tallies with a Chloe Hart kill and Chalmers block helping to extend the lead to 9-4.

The Lady Lions got within one three times before a Nunley kill broke serve and set the table for Brailyn Tullous. Tullous broke things open with a four-point run with kills from Chalmers and Nunley and a Peyton Nail-Chalmers combo block to force a Vernon timeout down 20-14.

The hostesses would get no closer than four the rest of the game with Jacksboro looking to put things away in game four.

A four-point Bennett skein got the Tigerettes out to a 5-2 lead in game four. Single points from Nunley and Hart gave Jacksboro an 11-9 lead. It would be its last cushion of the game as a five-point Morgan Brennan string and a threepoint Cirstin Ivy run effectively forced a game five.

Jacksboro used a Kylie Tullous serving point and a Bennett return to take a 3-1 lead in the finale. Ivy’s kill set up a five-point serving run by the junior to put Vernon ahead 7-3. Nakayla Whatley rolled off another five serving tallies to extend the lead to 13-5.

Down 14-6, the Tigerettes had one last hurrah with Nunley serving up four straight, aided by a pair of Jonas kills to claw back into the game down three. Jacksboro would get no closer, however.

The Tigerettes played in Bowie Tuesday night (no results as of press time) and will host Henrietta Friday at 4:30 p.m.