The Lady Jay volleyball team opened their season with a home tournament, just missing finishing on top.

After successfully shutting down Highland Park and Topeka West, the Lady Jays saw their toughest competition of the night in Topeka Hayden, who would hand them their first loss.

Head Coach Gennifer Booth said she’s pleased with how the girls played.

“I thought we did very well, the girls played up to their capabilities,” said Booth while noting their most visisble weakness. “One of the things that I told the girls [that we need to work on] is that transition speed, we’ve got to get faster, we’re doing ladders everyday, all of them are in athletic strength and conditioning – they’ve just got to get faster footwork.”

Booth added that at times the girls don’t realize the talents they do have, and they need to work on that confidence.

“Half the time the girls are so amazed at something that they do [that] they watch, and they have to realize that it’s still active play and they’ve got to be good participants,” said Booth.

Hopefully the girls get over the shock and awe as they head further in to the season, but Booth says that they are taking things a week at a time.

“We need to set small goals, small goals will get us to where we need to be…they’ve set a goal of where want to be at in two weeks, where we want to be at 3 weeks and where we want to be at 4 weeks,” said Booth.

Though the team faired well in their only home meet of the season, Booth was tough but optimistic.

“We were pretty competitive tonight, but I’d like to be a little more competitive in the long run, because we had a good finishing last year, but I’d like a higher finishing, so hopefully that will come out to play as the season progresses,” said Booth.

The Lady Jays compete the rest of the season on the road, with competition at Highland Park High school on Tuesday, September 6th.