While on the road to battle Pekin the Lady Lions gave themselves no room for error after losing back-to-back-sets. 

Not backing down, the Lady Lions gave themselves a chance to mount a comeback after they were able to narrowly snatch a win in the third set.

Despite the momentum they garnered after the win, Pekin was able to shut the door on Lone Tree’s potential resurgence, emerging victorious in a hard fought fourth set. 

By claiming victory in the fourth set the Pekin Panthers defeated Lone Tree, 3-1, with final scores of 25-20, 25-21. 26-24, and 25-23 on September 7. 

For the Panthers this win gave them their first victory of the season and for Lone Tree this loss stretches their losing streak to six in a row.  

Both teams were able to reach at least 20 points in every single set, but a facet of Pekin’s game that set themselves apart from Lone Tree was their effective serves. 

The Panthers compiled 18 service aces as a team with three of their players having four or more. 

Leading the way in the serving department for Pekin was junior Myah Bainbridge who led the team in service aces (7). She also led her team in kills (13). 

A common occurrence in all four sets was Lone Tree playing from behind, always having to overcome a deficit and in all but one set they were not able to. 

One of the Lady Lions who shined on offense was junior Cate Sexton. 

She ended her night with five kills, six digs, and led the team with four service aces. In the third set Sexton scored the winning point with a well-placed service ace. 

Leading the Lady Lions in kills (6) was junior Rylee Shield. She also had the second most digs (14) on the team and had one serve ace, which occurred in the first set. 

When it came to leading Lone Tree in digs (15) that accolade belonged to senior Hogan Eden. In the assists department, junior Hayden Yoder led the team in assists (13). 

WACO 3, Lone Tree 1

After nothing but road matchups to begin the season the Lady Lions hosted their first home game of the season and battled the WACO Warriors on September 5. 

Playing spoiler, the Warriors were able to win the first, second, and fourth set to defeat the Lady Lions, 3-1, with final scores of 25-19, 25-23, 25-23, and 25-19. 

Entering this game against Lone Tree, the Warriors were riding a six-game winning streak, having only lost two games on the season. 

For WACO it was another proficient night of assists for senior Meredith Roth, who led the team with 33 assists. 

On offense the Lady Lions were led by junior Rylee Shield. Shield had the most kills on the team (5) and had the second most digs (13).

Putting together one of her most impressive defensive performances of the year for Lone Tree was junior Cate Sexton. She ended her night with seven blocks total with four of them being solo blocks. 

Once again it was the senior, Hogan Eden, who ended the game with the most digs (15) for Lone Tree. 

As a team Lone Tree had 18 service aces with junior Madison Floyd accounting for five of them.