Coach Dan Ahiers first season as Head coach of the Lady Blue Raiders Volleyball team started at Knoxville this weekend at the Tennessee Classic.
In Dan Ahiers’ coaching debut, the Blue Raiders began the 2016 season on a high note with a victory against ULM in straight sets (25-16, 25-21, 25-17) to open the DISH Tennessee Classic.Along with Ahiers, six of the 11 Raiders who saw action also donned the Blue and White for the first time.
“We’ve got a pretty young team, that comes with adversity and getting better. Not only do we get the win, but all these young kids saw things they have never seen before,” Ahiers said. “It’s great for a young team to have accomplished so much in that first match.”
With the win, the Blue Raiders won their first season-opener since 2013.
Saturday’s game found the Blue Raiders going up against a tough Cincinati Bearcats team. The Lady Blue Raiders dropped that game in 4 sets 1-3.
Despite dropping the final match of the DISH Tennessee Classic to Tennessee 3-0, first-year head coach has Dan Ahiers learned a lot about his team early in the season.
“It doesn’t matter the score – they come to play every single point,” Ahiers said. “We were down some sets by 8-plus, but they wanted to earn every single point. It was great to see that, especially on a team with new pieces. It’s great to see no matter what we do, they still work together as a team.”
Sophomore Vonnie Covington paced MT with six kills against the Vols, while Aubrie Huddleston and Regan Coughlin each had four. Huddleston and Meg Irvin also turned in a team-high six digs.
Sophomore Bailey Mason, who tallied 26 kills, 16 digs and six total blocks on the weekend, was tabbed to the All-Tournament team.
Full stats and Lady Blue Raider News here.
