CLINTON — This has been a tough season thus far for the Lady Maroons on the volleyball court.  They have been playing tough and have come close to wins on many occasions, but the wins seem to elude them.  

The Lady Maroons have had a run of home games this past week, but the friendly confines of the home court have not brought solace to the team.

The home stretch began on September 19 against the Central A&M Lady Raiders.  The junior varsity (JV) match started the evening with the Lady Raiders taking a hard fought first set 25-20.  The match could have ended there as the Lady Maroons came into the second set as if they didn’t know what to do to play volleyball and seemed to have lost all confidence in themselves, losing 25-11.   Thus, the Lady Raiders won the JV match 2-0.  

Next on the playbill was the varsities of each school.  The Lady Raiders again took the early advantage to win 25-20.  In the second set, as in the first, the Lady Maroons fell to a 7 point deficit before deciding to strike back.  And strike back they did, struggling through some tough volleys to pass the Lady Raiders to win the second set 25-23.  The final and deciding set was a battle on both sides, but unfortunately the Lady Raiders were able to eke out a 25-21 win for the 2-1 match win.

Then, the Lady Maroons hosted the St. Teresa Lady Bulldogs.  The HJV game began with the teams trading points and leads, but the Lady Bulldogs were a little tougher and pulled out a 25-17 win in the first set.  The second set was also very close, even closer than the first round with the score going past the normal 25 points.  

Alas, the Lady Bulldogs finally held on to win the set 26-24 and the match 2-0.  The varsity squads then took the floor, or at least St. Teresa did.  

The Lady Maroons almost buried themselves before getting a kick start from somewhere and struggled back into the game only to lose the set 25.21.  In the second set the Lady Maroons appeared to have changed players with someone as there previous jump start left them mostly dead in the water as St. Teresa won the set 25-9 and the match 2-0.

With two consecutive home losses, the Lady Maroons were looking for some relief when the Monticello Lady Sages arrived on September 25.  The relief was not to be found and all hope began to fade when the freshman team lost in two sets 20-25 and 25-9.  

There seemed to be no coordinated movement and only 2 or 3 players for the Lady Maroons seemed involved in the game.  The JV games were better played with Clinton dropping the first set by a close 25-23 score.  The second set was tough for Clinton to be down by 9 and come back strong to then lose by 11, 25-14 and the match 2-0.  The varsity teams then arrived on the floor in what turned out to be some real volleyball action, only to have the Lady Maroons come up short again, 26-24 and 25-20, losing the match 2-0.  Hopefully the Lady Maroons can rise over the net and begin a strong winning second half of the season.