After clawing and fighting their way to the doorstep of qualifying for the state tournament, the Saint Jo Lady Panthers ran out of gas on Saturday.
They fell to Bryson 3-0 to finish as 1A Region II runner-ups as the team cried in disappointment on the Midlothian High School gym floor as the ride came to an end. They had made school history in the process, but no one was thinking about that in this moment. To talk about how it ended, you first need to know how they got there.
The Lady Panthers won the district title and even handed one of their 2A schools they had to play in their mixed district a loss. This earned them a bye in the bi-district round.
Their games against Perrin-Whitt and Prairie Valley seemed to provide them minimal challenge as they did not lose a set in either game to make it to the regional tournament at Midlothian.
Their game on Friday was against Blum, the state runner-ups from last year who had not lost a match to a 1A school all year. While the Lady Cats came in with the prestige, Saint Jo showed early on they belonged.
The first set was close throughout, with the largest lead being when Blum led 18-15 before the Lady Panthers came back to tie and play point-for-point. Unfortunately for Saint Jo, the Lady Cats were able to narrowly close things out as they won 25-23 to take an early lead.
While this could have led to the team feeling sorry for themselves, it just reconfirmed for the Lady Panthers that they could play with this team. Saint Jo went from trailing slightly in the second set 8-7 to leading 15-9 as they took control of the set like neither team had in the first set.
Blum’s mistakes continued to mount as the Lady Panther’s lead grew bigger and bigger. They easily closed out the second set on a 10-5 run to win 25-14 to tie the match up.
The third set started close, but Saint Jo was able to grab an early 12-8 lead and coming off an easy set win, it looked like things might be headed that way again for the Lady Panthers.
Unfortunately, the Lady Cats were able to climb back and tie the match up at 17-17 before taking advantage of a series of self inflicted errors to let Blum take a 22-18 lead. Saint Jo could not climb back as the Lady Cats closed the set to win 25-19 to take a 2-1 lead.
Needing to win the fourth set to keep their season alive, the Lady Panthers were able to steadily extend their lead from 6-4, 9-6, 12-8, 15-10, 18-12, 21-14. Looking like the set was in hand, catastrophe almost struck for Saint Jo.
The girls from Blum had no quit in them as they prayed on a stream of bad serve-receive sequences in a row to get back into the set. They closed to 22-18 before tying the set up at 23-23. The Lady Cats then took their first lead of the set after a blocked spike and had the match point staring at them at 24-23.
The Lady Panthers were not about to just collapse in on themselves. They won the next point to tie it up 24-24. They stared their demise in the face again as Blum again had match point at 25-24 and again Saint Jo did not blink as they tied the score at 25-25.
The Lady Panthers were then able to take the advantage again and closed out the set to win 27-25 to force a fifth and final set to 15 points.
It looked like Saint Jo had an early advantage as they led 4-2. The Lady Cats tied the score at 5-5 before the Lady Panthers again jumped out to a two-point lead 7-5 only for Blum to tie the set at 8-8.
Saint Jo again got a two-point lead 10-8 and it seemed like it might hold true. The lead grew until the Lady Panthers were staring the win in the face as they had match point leading 14-10.
Again, the girls from Blum would not quit and Saint Jo again started to tighten up. The Lady Cats made things real uncomfortable for all as they cut the lead to 14-13. Needing just one more point, the Lady Panthers were able to get it to win 15-13 and the match 3-2.
Three of the girls collapsed to the floor, tears of triumph running down their cheeks as the rest of the team hugged to embrace each other.
“They played with all their heart,” Coach Charlie Pittman said. “That’s what got us through that first game because our skills, they were there in some moments and not there in other moments.”
Pittman said the girls were completely drained from the game experience, but they had one more win against Bryson, who had to fight tooth and nail against Abbot in five sets the game before, left in front of them for a chance to go to the state tournament.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.