The Grace Christian Academy varsity and middle school Lady Cougars have had very successful seasons.

The varsity has an 8-3 record in September and is 10-8 overall and 5-3 in and tied for second place in Panhandle Christian Conference play.

The junior varsity finished the season with an excellent 7-1 record in a season which they won 15 sets and dropped only three.

The highlight of the season for the varsity came when they defeated the Emmanuel Christian School Lady Warriors, a team they had not defeated since 2001, 3-1.

They lost the first set 24-26, but came back to win the second, third and fourth sets 25-21, 25-16 and 26-24. In the win over Emmanuel, junior Brock Bailey led the team with 29 kills and junior Sydney Harrell added eight kills and five blocks.

Also having big efforts against Emmanuel were sophomore Emma Heard with 21 assists and two service aces, senior Morgan Baker with 28 assists, sophomore Stephanie Mills with five kills and a 100 percent serve percentage, and sophomore Jessica Register, who led the team with 32 serves and six aces.

“The ladies are really playing with a lot of confidence right now,” varsity coach Erwin Harrell said. “We’ve had several come-from-behind victories this season. I’m proud of the way they have played hard in every match.”

This is only the second season of middle school volleyball at Grace. Last year’s record was 6-1.

This year’s team strength was serving. They were led by Melissa Mills with a serving percentage of 91 percent. She had 62 aces out of 126 serve attempts.

Middle school Lady Cougars coach Betsy Flowers said her players really worked well together as a team.

“I am proud of the success the girls had this year,” she said. “Their hard work paid off.”