RHS girls face early defeat

The 2019 varsity volleyball season got underway for the Russellville Golden Tigers with a busy week on the court.

The Lady Golden Tigers began the season with home matches versus Deshler and Phillips Aug. 27. Deshler defeated RHS 2-1, and Phillips swept Russellville 2-0.

Against Deshler, Russellville fell by game scores of 25-23, 9-25 and 13-15.

Lexie Glass of RHS had six kills, while Caroline Sparks added four kills and five digs. Callie Palmer added five kills, while Chalea Clemmons and Jayna Poss had three kills each.

Leah Rushing added eight assists and eight digs, while Madalyn Warhurst and Krista Sikes helped the cause with five assists each.

Alivia Clemmons had seven digs, and Sophie Moore had five.

Phillips picked up the victory over RHS by scores of 11-25 and 22-25.

Sparks had five kills for Russellville, and Chalea Clemmons had three. Rushing picked up five assists during the match, while Sikes added three.

Glass rounded out the statistics with four blocks.

Talented senior Briana Ramirez missed the games with an ankle injury. Her absence on the court caused RHS second-year head coach Whitney Glover to shuffle her lineup a bit.

“I have all the faith in them that this season’s going to be a lot different,” Glover said of her squad. “I’ve got some great girls. They’re hitting, they’re setting, and they’re doing the things that I want them to do. We’ve just got to work on making sure that on every single play, we’re ready to play the ball.”

The Golden Tigers traveled to Belgreen Aug. 29 and fell to the Bulldogs 22-25, 25-20, 18-25 and 17-25. Russellville’s slow start to the season continued with losses to Athens Bible, Lexington and Cullman at the West Morgan Tournament Aug. 31.