PHOTO BY GABE WOLF Lampasas volleyball head coach Tracey Myers tries to fire up her squad during a break in the action of Tuesday's match against Gatesville. The Lady Badgers volleyball team showed some fight against Gatesville on Tuesday night, but it wasn't enough to notch its first victory of the season.

Head coach Tracey Myers' squad lost the match in straight sets, falling 25-9, 25-19 and 25-22 to the familiar foe. Lampasas High School opened its preseason on the road with a scrimmage against the Fightin' Hornets who will again play host to the Lady Badgers this weekend as they travel to the Gatesville Tournament for matches on Thursday and Saturday.

"I think we know each other by heart now," Myers said. "It's good for our girls because he has a good ball club and we hung with them."

The Lady Badgers were overwhelmed in the early minutes of the match, falling behind 6-20 and giving up 10 consecutive points before Gatesville took the opening set. In the second set, Myers' squad tied the score at 12-12 before Gatesville put together a run, extending its lead to 17-12 en route to taking a 25-19 second-set victory.

In the third set, Lampasas allowed Gatesville to leap out to a 5- 0 advantage which grew to 12-5 before junior Sam Gauna took over the serve and helped rally the team back to a tie score at 12-12. The Lady Badgers kept things close through the remainder of the set, but never could take the lead as Gatesville won the match-clinching set 25-22.

"I told them that it was up to them and they had to dig down deep," Myers said. "If they wanted to win it or wanted to come back, it was going to be up to them to dig down deep and they did it."

Though the Lady Badgers fell, their net defense was the best Myers said she had seen from her club this season.

"They were disappointed that they kept going out, but I wasn't because we were actually blocking the ball," Myers said. "I think this is the first time ever that we've gotten our hands on that many balls."

The loss comes on the heels of a disappointing defeat to Llano on Monday. Lampasas fell in three sets after losing its composure early on in the match.

Myers' team was up 20-9 in the first set, but after Llano ripped off four quick points the set slipped away, and LHS lost 26-24.

"We were still seven points ahead [at 20-13], and our heads dropped," Myers said. "In the second game, we came back, but we were still a little shell-shocked. In the third game we were down by 11 points, but we came back. We fought hard, but they just nipped us there again.

"We're just young, and we've got to learn to keep our heads up."

The rough start to the season was expected by Myers because her team is playing so many matches, especially on the road, and the girls simply haven't had adequate time to practice, but she is still excited about her team's potential.

"They've come so far," Myers said. "We've got little things to tweak like getting into proper position on defense, and they are slowly getting it, but we haven't had too many practices to work on that. Once we settle down next week when school starts, I think we'll see a remarkable improvement in our movement and our defense."