BY DAVE CHOATE

Girls volleyball coach Lorraine Connell and her John Stark team made the mistake of looking past Fall Mountain and suffered a swift defeat. They made sure Bedford didn’t get the same chance on Sept. 19.

The Lady Generals whipped the Bulldogs 3-0, winning by scores of 25-15, 25-7 and 25-20. The victory improved the inexperienced team’s record to 2-2.

“We needed this win tonight. We learned a lesson from that loss in three games against Fall Mountain and brought it in here against Bedford,” Connell said.

Ellen Eberly,  an emergency junior varsity call-up aced nine of her 20 serves to lead the Lady Generals.

The team consistently ran off scoring streaks of five points or more, keeping the Bulldogs off balance and reaching for shots.

John Stark faced a difficult challenge against Portsmouth on Friday, Sept. 21, falling 3-0, but Connell said she hopes to keep her squad, which lost eight seniors to graduation, playing at or near the .500 mark.

“Good team or bad team, we’re going to come out prepared now,” she said. “I feel we really learn from the better teams and better players on how to play the game the right way.”