The Junior Lady Wildcats improved to 5-0 beating Harrisburg 25-18, 25-19 on Monday. The senior high squad went down to defeat 15-25, 22-15, 21-25. (Democrat Photo/Mark Randall)

Last season wasn't that much fun for junior high lady Wildcats volleyball team.

But this year it's another story.

The junior high squad improved to 5-0 with a 25-18, 25-19 victory Aug. 8 against Harrisburg.

Julia Jones had 11 digs and six kills and Hannah Walters went 9 for 9 serving with six aces. Scarlett Davis had eight digs, Kelly Guthrie had seven digs and Hailey Winningham added four digs and five assists.

Coach Matt Mink said the girls have great chemistry this year and are playing well as a team.

"This is the best junior high team so far," Mink said. "They have that 'want t' and work well together and it has paid off and is really showing."

And they are still young too, which Mink said should bode well for the program in the coming years.

Their senior high counterparts didn't fare as well, missing 13 serves on the night in a 15-25, 22-25, 21-25 loss.

Bailye Ballard had 42 digs and Daria Seay went 13 of 14 serving, but the offense never quite got going on the night.

"We found ourselves on the defensive end a lot," Mink said. "And anytime you give a team 13 free points -- that's not very good. We never could get anything going and we made a lot of mental errors. Not everybody came to play it seemed."

Mink said the mental errors gave the game away and robbed the team of any momentum.

"It seems like when we'd get on a roll we'd make a really big error and following that a couple more," Mink said. "And in volleyball, momentum is a very big thing."

The team is still young and still hasn't clicked yet as a team, which Mink said he hopes will change as they get later into the season.

"We're still trying to figure it out," Mink said. "We're still young and still learning each other. They just don't have that much experience together. When it clicks, it looks good. We're five games in and we're still new at this. But that's not going to be an excuse any more. We're fixing to make some changes to try and find something."

The Lady Wildcats play an away game at CRA on Thursday.

"CRA is a really tough team who has a tradition of winning," Mink said. "It should be a good test for us to see how we stand against them."