Greene County has begun the 2019 high school volleyball with a pair of hard-fought victories on Tuesday night in the middle school gym in Jefferson. Coach Chris Heisterkamp’s Rams won two of three games from both Collins-Maxwell and Glidden-Ralston, a pair of Class 1A non-conference opponents. G-R was a winner in two straight over C-M.

The Rams lost the first game of the season by a 13-25 score to C-M’s Spartans. They bounced back to lead 9-0 in game two, then hung on for a 25-23 win. The third set was to 15 and the Rams trailed 11-12 before winning the match by scoring the final four points of the set.

Greene County won the first contest with the Wildcats by a 25-21 final. They lost 16-25 in the second game, then won game three by a score of 15-12 after again trailing 11-12.

Coach Heisterkamp commented about opening night. “The girls fought through many ups and downs, and refocused to pull out these two wins. I feel encouraged about how they hung in the fight and came from behind to pull out the wins. Last year, we couldn’t have done that, so it’s great to see how they’ve grown in their ability to handle nerves and compete for every point, not giving up after a run of errors. It was a great season opener!”

Lily Muir had eight kills vs. G-R and six against C-M. Brianna Osterson had seven kills against C-M and five vs. G-R. Setter Aubrey Heupel recorded four kills vs. C-M and three against G-R. Sophie Havens had three kills against G-R.

The first road contest of the young season takes place tomorrow when the Rams play in Perry vs. the non-conference Jayettes.