Lady Red Devils win Volleyball Opener

Hall Wins one for Dani

Jim Cogdal

September 02, 2009

With her family in the stands and her alma mater on the other side of the net, it would have been understandable if Hall head volleyball coach Dani Zellmer was a little nervous about her coaching debut. Then on top of it, the Lady Devils fell behind by three points right out of the gate to Putnam County.

Everything still managed to work out in the end for Zellmer and the Lady Devils.
Hall got things together and rolled to a 25-9, 25-13 win Tuesday night at Red Devil Gymnasium to earn Zellmer’s first victory as head coach after taking over for Demi Salazar, who stepped down after last season. “We got those first-time jitters out of the way early, and I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be either. It was nice,” Zellmer said. “Everybody has pressure. All the girls had pressure, too. It was their first game. They wanted to show the school that they were good and that they were going to lead all the way.”

Hall (1-0) definitely led the way Tuesday against the young and inexperienced Lady Panthers (0-1). But at first, Putnam County stole the limelight from its former Panther princess in the beginning of the first game. Thanks to a pair of points by junior Christine Mattern and a kill by Kelly King, the Lady Panthers jumped out to a 3-0 lead.

However, just as the raucous Devil crowd got going, so did the Hall players they were cheering so loudly for. Behind a Mickey Victor kill and three points and an ace by senior setter Christina Richardson, Hall managed to tie the game at 3-3 and shake out any worries.
“She had confidence in us and it really helped us,” Richardson said of her new head coach. “She was just like, ‘There are people coming to watch me from Putnam County, so we have to be doing our best.’”