BRUNSWICK – GA. The electricity in the air is unmatched for athletes on game days, especially on the first game day of the season and this was no exception for the Lady Royals Volleyball Team. Their 2018 season kicked off today in Brunswick, Georgia in the Mariner Invitational Tournament. The Royals had dates with the Hastings College Broncos, and the Mayville State Comets.

Game 1 Recap
In their first match of the season, the Royals fell behind early and could not recover as they dropped the set 12-25 against the Hastings Broncos. In the second set, the visiting Royals made a comeback and held their ground to win 25-20. The third set was an intense matchup where the two teams battled point for point but ultimately Warner fell 21-25, which made the score now 1-2 in favor of the Broncos. The fourth set was just as exciting as the third and again the teams battled back and forth but this time the Royals came out on top, taking the fourth set 25-21. In the fifth set, Warner fought their hardest but just could not stay ahead and dropped this set 15-12 which cost them the game. The Royals were led offensively by Breeanna Navarro with 11 kills, defensively by Andrea Lorenz with 20 digs, and Raygen Lee came away with 26 assists.

Game 2 Recap
During this match, the Royals started off strong but hit a wall once they reached 5 points, and then allowed 7 unanswered points by the home team on the scoreboard, the Mayville Comets. This proved to be detrimental to their success, as Warner dropped the first set of this match 13-25. In set two, the Royals again fell to a deficit that they could not come back from, and ultimately fell in this set 21-25, making the score 0-2 in favor of the Comets. In set 3, Warner fell behind to a score of 9-3 but were able to rally and pull ahead to make the score 15-14. The Royals did not lose the lead from then on out, winning this set 25-20.Unfortunately Warner seemed to run out of gas in the fourth set, as they did not take the lead one time and dropped the set 25-14, and the game by a score of 3-1 to the Comets. The Royals were led offensively by Breeanna Navarro and Vanessa Boitnott with 13 and 11 kills respectively, defensively by Andrea Lorenz with 24 digs, and Raygen Lee finished with 25 assists while Bailee Mack ended with 19.

The Royals will try again tomorrow with games against Reinhardt University at 3:30 p.m. and Life University at 6 p.m.