Youthful Lady Dragons stun competitors at jamboree

The Cameron High School Volleyball Team may not be in a rebuilding year after all following Saturday’s jamboree where they went took one of three game.

The Lady Dragons began the day by sweeping Lathrop 2-0 in a pair of games to 15, then tied  Midland Empire Conference foe Savannah 1-1 and Trenton 1-1.

“Overall I am very pleased with the team. We have some things to work on, but overall I was pleased with the girls,” first-year coach Addie Floyd said. “It’s a fresh, new team with Avery (McVicker), Aly (Yates) and Natallie (Garr) as our only returners, but we did very well. Olivia (Moore) stood out. She’s pretty big and she stepped in for one of my middle hitters, who is injured right now. She did a great job stepping into the position I threw her into just a couple of day ago.”

After falling 4-0 in the first few serves, the Lady Dragons settled in. Once able to contest the serve, Lathrop wilted in Cameron’s defense, allowing them to go on a 9-6 run to take the first set 15-11. 

A pair of kills by McVicker set the tone in game two, but Lathrop rallied to pull within a point until a block by Moore on match point decided game, and the match, in Cameron’s favor 17-15 after going into extra sets.

Kills by McVicker set the tone for the Cameron again against Savannah, but lack of consistency eventually led to the Lady Savages taking the first game 15-8. Not to be dissuaded, McVicker again gave her team an early lead, but this time it held. A push by Mica Sunscombe set up match point, then Sunscombe ended the game in extra sets with an ace 16-14. 

After rallying from 6 points down with match point looming, a kill by Sunscombe seemed to revive the Lady Dragons only for a bad serve to end game one 15-12. 

A seemingly enraged Lady Dragons squad then went on a 3-1 tear to open game two, pummeling Trenton into a 15-6 defeat to tie the match 1-1.

“Mica has been working on her hits and dove a great job of hitting line and reading sets,” Floyd said. “She does a great job. Everyone is showing what they have (at the jamboree), but as the season progresses it’s all about how much better you get. You start working together more. We’ve only had this week working as a varsity team. We haven’t had a lot of time, but when we see Savannah in a few weeks we’re going to be meshing a lot more and have worked out some kinks.”

For sophomore McVicker, she likes what she sees. Although consistency issues cropped up Saturday, she feels the corrections they will make will be small despite fielding a team with only a few returning varsity starters from 2018.

“If we come together fast, in the future, we’re going to be unstoppable,” McVicker said. “It takes a little while, but we’ll handle it. We’re young. If we play really well, and mesh, we will dominate.”