As the season is winding down in year two for the Winston Academy Lady Patriots volleyball team, they haven’t been afraid to go up against talented competition. WA sits at 8-12 in year two with the bulk of those losses coming against long-standing volleyball programs and some state championship contenders. Last week, WA went up against two of the area’s better volleyball clubs in Heritage Academy and Choctaw County and they came up empty-handed in both matches though both were filled with optimism. Against the visiting Lady Pats from Columbus, Winston had a 3-0 defeat with scores of 25-10, 25-17 and 25-23. Sophie Vanlandingham had five kills, Brayleigh Gregory had four assists, two kills, one block and one ace, Bella Hillyer had four digs, two assists, two kills and an ace, Layton Nowell had eight kills and four aces and Laney Gregory had six assists. WA went on the road to Ackerman to play a Saturday afternoon of volleyball at Choctaw County and lost a 3-0 decision to the Lady Chargers with the finals being 25-12, 25-21 and 25-12. Nowell finished with four kills and two assists, Brayleigh Gregory had four kills, four assists and two assists, Laney Gregory had four assists and two aces and Lindsey Krajewski had three kills. “Even though we lost in straight sets last week, our girls showed a lot of improvement,” head coach Candice Cefalu said. “Several points were long volleys where we were able to hang in there for a while but just didn’t get the point. Our future looks bright.” WA will finish out the second year of volleyball this Thursday night when they travel to Grace Christian School.
