Mexico lost its first match of the season on Tuesday.

Mexico at North Callaway Photo Gallery

The Lady Bulldogs followed a four-set loss at home to Hallsville (20-25, 25-20, 23-25 and 25-27) with a four-set victory at North Callaway (25-15, 25-23, 21-25 and 25-22). Mexico extended its winning streak against the Ladybirds to six with 14 service aces.

Head coach Kathryn French said it was important for the girls to adjust soon after their first loss in her first season as a head coach. Mexico (3-1) had to adjust quickly since the loss happened the previous day.

“Any time you have your first loss of the season, it’s really tough,” French said. “Recovering from that, our biggest mentality from last night in the locker room was to have your feelings, be upset and be ready tomorrow morning when you wake up.”

French said the Lady Bulldogs showed a lot of hustle against Hallsville but didn’t have enough for victory. Hustle is one of those “invisible stats” along with communication that were both crucial in defeating North Callaway (2-3) the next night.

Isgrig led Mexico’s serving with six service aces, and Addison Paden followed with four aces. Isgrig picked up half of her aces on a 6-0 run that was key in Mexico taking the second set.

“We were able to push up the energy and have fun with it,” Isgrig said. “When we have fun, we do better.”

Mexico had aces flying down on North Callaway’s side from several other girls, including Emily Moppin, Jaclynn Cline and Ava Herron. French said the goal was to limit Mexico’s service errors to 10 or less, and the Lady Bulldogs were at 10.

Isgrig is heavily involved already as the team’s setter but said improving her serving has also been a focus for her.

“In the past, we’ve had a lot of serve errors,” Isgrig said. “We have to serve to get the game to play.”

French said Mexico did a good job of following the mantra of “every ball, every play” as the Lady Bulldogs stayed persistent on points. She said excelling on the serve further helps the Lady Bulldogs in their goals.

“We always have to protect the serve in volleyball,” French said. “If we have the serve, we control the tempo and we control what that rally is going to look like. Another person who didn’t get a lot of aces but was critical in switching our power back to us on the serve rotation was Ava Herron. When she got that serve, she protected it and had quite a few attempts.”

When Mexico struggled controlling the tempo, North Callaway was comfortable playing its game with its front row players. Bailey Hill had six kills and four blocks, and Alex Craighead had three blocks.

Towering over her foes and teammates, Hill factored into many points in North Callaway’s winning third set — the first set Mexico dropped against the Ladybirds since 2015 after five straight sweeps. Avis Endres also helped in the third set and finished with five kills in the match. 

“When you have an athlete like that who is very tall and very lanky in the arms, you have to be ready for that presence,” French said. “When (Hill) is coming up on the front row, I told my players, ‘Hey, she’s in the front,’ telling my hitters and telling my back row and front row to be ready to help cover. It’s all about communication and teamwork there.”