By GRAHAM CARR / Staff Writer

VINCENT – The Montevallo High School volleyball team beat Vincent High School 3-0(25-7, 25-12, 25-7) in both teams’ first game of the season Thursday, Aug. 23, at Vincent High School.

The Bulldogs started fast in set one jumping out to a 13-1 lead and cruised to the win.

The second set was close at first until Montevallo broke open a 10-7 score by finishing the set on a 15-5 run.

In the third set, Montevallo again jumped out to an early lead at 8-1 and Vincent could never recover.

Montevallo coach Tena Niven said it was a good first game against a Vincent team with many athletes, but said her team still has some work to do.

“It kind of looked like chaos because we were trying to move people in and out and figure out what positions they should be in,” Niven said.

Niven mentioned that Montevallo returns only two starters from the team that advanced to the Elite Eight of the state championship last season, but she said there is time to improve before the bigger tournaments.

“I told them, I am not worried about what happens right now as long as we are getting better because it is the end of the season that counts,”Niven said. “If we will just continue to get better mentally and do our physical stuff, it will all come together for us at the end.”

Vincent coach Stephanie Ledlow said it was tough opening the season against a good Montevallo team with her team being so young.  The Yellow jackets have only one senior and played a lot of freshman.

“But we have a lot of work to do,”Ledlow said.

Montevallo was led by junior Kerringtan Maddox with three kills. Sophomore Isabella Howell had seven assists while senior Sarah Hyde led with 8 serves.  Vincent did not keep stats for the game.