Lady Bearcats sit 7-10 after a hard September stretch
Baldwyn’s volleyball season has been a story of a hard schedule and thin margins.
The Lady Bearcats sit 7-10 with a 21-30 set record. Their MVPI rating of 42.3 ranks No. 148 statewide and No. 19 in Class 2A.
The number worth noting is strength of schedule: -0.8, the second-toughest slate in Prentiss County behind only Booneville. Baldwyn has not padded its record, and the power index reflects that, rating the Lady Bearcats ahead of a number of teams with better win totals.
Baldwyn’s best day came Aug. 22 in tournament play, when the Lady Bearcats went 2-1 with a 2-0 win over Thrasher and a 2-1 win over New Site — handing the Royals one of only two losses all season. The lone defeat that day came against Booneville.
The August run also included a 3-1 win over Mantachie, a 3-0 win over Shannon, a 2-0 win over Houston and a 3-1 win over North Pontotoc on Aug. 18 that avenged a season-opening 0-3 loss to the same team.
September has been harder. Baldwyn has dropped three straight without winning a set: 0-3 to Hatley on Sept. 1, 0-3 to New Site on Sept. 3 and 0-3 to Hatley again on Sept. 10.
Those Hatley matches are the ones that sting. Hatley has now swept Baldwyn twice, and the second meeting came at a point in the season when the Lady Bearcats badly needed a result.
The pieces are there. Baldwyn has beaten a ranked New Site team, split its series with North Pontotoc and played nearly everyone close outside of that September stretch. Finding sets against the top of the schedule is the next step.
