In the last game of the season, county and district rivals Bowie and Nocona squared off for the third time this season with playoff seeding on the line.
For the Lady Indians, it was senior night at home. A win would guarantee at least sole possession of runner-up status to Holliday, with a prayer the Lady Eagles would lose to Henrietta to give Nocona a share of the district title.
For the Lady Rabbits, not only would a win be pay back for losing the first two times against their rival and avoid the season sweep, it would also tie them with the Lady Indians for second place in the district and a chance at getting a second seed.
The crowd was raucous as Nocona’s student section was dressed up in Halloween costumes and ready to make noise. With both crowds joined together in one stand, it was a blast of noise coming from one direction on top of the court of play. The music seemed turned up even louder than normal. Both sides cheerleaders added extra noise during timeouts and even during opponent serves.
There were some jitters on both sides as some serves sailed far out of bounds as every point from the crowd was celebrated like it was match-point. Some three-point stretches leading to a timeout brought fans to their feet.
The first set was competitive, but it was Nocona who steadily built a sizeable lead, culminating in a 12-8 lead early on. Bowie stormed back to cut the lead to 18-17. The teams played point-to-point after that as neither team could get much of an edge over the next 10 points.
The Lady Indians held a narrow 23-22 lead, but a set that close was liable to swing either team’s way to close it out. It was Nocona who was able to keep their lead as they closed things out to win 25-23.
Things started catastrophic for the Lady Rabbits in the second set as they found themselves down 11-4 quickly. They cut the lead to five as they climbed back 15-10, but another good rotation ballooned the lead up to 19-11. From there it was only a matter of time as the teams played almost even for the rest of the set as the Lady Indians won 25-18 to go up 2-0.
The third set started much like the first. Bowie was competing well with Nocona, but the one point lead for the Lady Indians slowly turned into a two-point lead, then a three-point lead. Down 17-13 and in the exact same spot they closed the gap in the first set, it went the other way for the Lady Rabbits. Nocona reeled off five straight points to go up 22-13 and all but seal the win unless something magic happened for Bowie.
You could almost argue something almost did. The Lady Rabbits won eight of the 10 points as they cut the lead to 24-21. Unfortunately for Bowie, and relief from the Lady Indians, Nocona won the next point as a Lady Rabbit spike went wide to secure the win in straight sets from the Lady Indians.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.