Dana Williams of the Advance Lady Hornets puts down one of her seven kills

ADVANCE - Advance High School’s much anticipated 2003 volleyball season opened with less excitement than fans of the Lady Hornets had hoped for. The gymnasium packed with volleyball fans eager for heated action, and the Lady Hornets did what they did to most teams last season - flexed their muscles and made short work of their opponents. This time the victim was the Meadow Heights Lady Panthers, 25-9, 25-9. “I think the kids were hoping for a more intense game,” Advance coach Kim Aggertt said after the contest. “We didn’t know how the rally score would go. The jayvee match showed it was one point back-and-forth all the time and we didn’t know if that was how it was going to go. “But I’m satisfied overall with the 25-9 games,” Aggertt added. “I think we need to continued to push to limit that score because most of their scores were off our errors.” The junior varsity Lady Hornets warmed the crowd up by going three games with the visiting Lady Panthers. Advance pulled the match out with a 25-15 win in the third game, after winning the first game 26-24 and dropping the second, 25-17. Aggertt said that the new rally scoring adopted in high school volleyball this season has changed the game. “Nobody is going to run away with a game,” she stated. “Even if you have a state championship team and a team that is just starting a volleyball program, you can put them on the court and they’ll score points just because of your team’s errors.” Senior Dana Williams led the Lady Hornets in kills with seven and blocks with two. Junior Kaci Cooper paced the team with six service aces. Advance will be in action tonight as the Lady Hornets host the Oran Lady Eagles. “We’ve played them with rally scoring a lot throughout the year, but they usually play a lot of good defense,” Aggertt said of the Lady Eagles. “That’s what teams will do against us. We have big kids that will step up and hit the ball and they will play it right up.”