By Thomas Sellers Jr.
The court, bleachers and some other features of the William Osteen Gymnasium have changed over the last 20 years, but for Lauren Pannell she was walking in familiar territory.
From her days as star Millington Lady Trojan hitter Lauren Trouy to being the program’s first Division I player and returning home as an assistant coach, Pannell has always kept Lady Trojan Volleyball within touching distance.
As of this summer and officially on August 17, 2026, the program was fully placed in her trusting hands as head coach. Her debut was against familiar foe, the Munford Lady Cougars.
The current edition of the Lady Trojans made sure their head coach had a successful first match with a competitive 25-23, 25-21 and 28-26 win over the Lady Cougars.
“I am very proud of them,” Pannell said. “They played hard. They did look a little nervous in the beginning, but the more it went on you can tell they got it together.”
The first set was a chance for both teams to loosen up nerves with multiple ties. After being deadlocked at 10-10, Millington jumped ahead 12-10. Eventually Munford rallied to tie the set at 14-14.
The contest was later tied at 16-16, 17-17 and 21-21. Millington used a scored from Malorri Carter to out score Munford 4-0 to prevail.
The Lady Cougars started off the second set with a solid performance behind scores from Bailey Harp, Makaylah Tolliver and Allison Plascencia.
“Missed serves, bad transitions, covering our hitters and missed serves in high-pressure situations, hitters not getting out far enough and just consistently hitting better shots,” Pannell noted as negative for her team. “They knew what was wide open, but they were still taking the easy swings instead of trying to find the holes.”
Munford was nursing a 16-14 advantage in the second set when Lady Trojan Hayley Stevens took over the serve.
The senior sparked her team to a 22-16 lead with Carter putting an exclamation point on the rally with a spike.
Before Munford could make a comeback, Lady Trojan sophomore Taylor Lockhart closed the door with a pair of kills down the stretch for the 25-21 win.
“Serve/receive was solid,” Pannell said were positives for her team. “There were a few balls they let hit the ground. All in all, serve/receive passing was pretty good to where we could get a swing. Serves were aggressive on the ones we didn’t miss, but they were aggressive and they were hitting the spots I was telling them to hit. That was good. Our middles are transitioning better.”
Lady Trojans Katie Graves and Londyn Maclin controlled the interior of the net most of the night. Munford made adjustments trying to stay alive in the third set taking a 20-18 lead late.
Harp and her teammate Lizzie Tyler had crucial aces in putting the Lady Cougars ahead.
When Tolliver slapped down a spike, Munford was five points away from winning the third set.
Then Carter and Maclin came up with points to deadlock the set at 20-20. Tolliver snatched back momentum for Munford with another kill. Maclin matched her energy with a tip and block to give Millington the advantage at 22-21.
The Lady Trojans were on the verge of victory ahead 24-22 when Munford rallied behind the serving of Tolliver to go ahead 25-24. Maclin tied the set at 25-25 with a tip score.
The two teams traded points to deadlock the third set at 26-26. Then Stevens scored to give Millington the lead for good and the Lady Trojans gave their coach a debut win with the 28-26 final.
“I did not want to go to four or five games,” Pannell acknowledged. “I don’t think they did either. I was glad they pulled that out.”
As the Coach Lauren Pannell is officially underway, she is still working on the transition phrase and putting her identity on the team.
“I would hope it’s ball control but the other thing I am trying to create is team unity,” she concluded. “I try to encourage them — conflict is inevitable, but resolution is optional. They know conflict is going to come but we have to pull together as a team to find a resolution to the conflicts we will have.”
