The Mintz Christian Academy varsity volleyball team opened up the 2019 season on Tuesday evening against Grace Christian School. Mintz defeated Grace in four sets, but a disastrous third nearly put a kink in the Lady Lions’ plans to continue their 17-game winning streak.
Following a JV match in which MCA also prevailed in straight sets, the varsity Lady Lions took the court as defending CCAA Champions. In the early going, Mintz dominated, cruising to a 25-7 first set win over the home-standing Grace.
Much of the same dominance continued into set number two, which the Lady Lions took by a score of 25 to 10, but the Lady Wildcats definitely didn’t go down without a valiant effort.
Flipping the script on Mintz, Grace Christian held right there with the visitors early in the third set. Turning a 9-8 lead into a 14-8 advantage, the Lady Wildcats had woken up. Until this point, suddenly looking dominant against the Lady Lions. Mintz was never able to get itself out of the six-point hole and would go on to falter 25-15 in the third set.
The third set debacle from Mintz, though, would not extend into what proved to be the decisive fourth set. Grabbing an early 10-3 perch over Grace Christians, the Lady Wildcats grinded out a 25-13 set win and match victory.
Dan Heinz, head coach of the Lady Lions, was not pleased with his team’s error filled third set performance.
“We had many errors as a team, culminating in that third set loss. Fixing those is priority
number one,” Heinz said.
Still, the coach acknowledged the positives in victory.
“However, we are still glad to come out of tonight with a win. Grace did a very good job of keeping us off balance, leading to the many errors,” Heinz concluded.
Now at 1-0 on the season, and their winning streak still alive, The Lady Lions were back in action on Thursday against Riverside Christian Academy.