The Allen volleyball team got down early, fought back late and ultimately fell to Neosho in their home opener Wednesday night, 3-2.
Wednesday’s effort illustrated the message Allen’s new head coach Maria Aikins intends to deliver all season long.
“I was proud of them for fighting back,” said Aikins. “They could have really just given up, but they didn’t. We weren’t going to accept that. It takes consistency to play our roles well and we have to get back to work and not allow ourselves to make excuses.”
The Lady Red Devils (2-3) dropped the first two sets by 25-15 and 25-20.
“They were a solid blocking team, they had some height out on the ends,” said Aikins. “They had to rely on their block but we will just need to do a better job of covering our hitters and blocking on our side.”
Allen fought back to win the third set 25-17, and fourth set, 25-12.
“We got our serves in, and that helped us play our tempo,” Aikins said. “We were then able to generate our offense. We also were able to whittle down our unforced errors.”
Allen was ahead 14-10 before Neosho finished on a 6-0 run.
Neosho then broke the hearts of Allen fans by beating the Lady Devils 16-14.
The Lady Red Devils travel to Fort Scott Community College Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.
