The Bowie Lady Rabbits fell on the road Tuesday night in four sets 3-1.
Playing at Holliday, a program usually in the running for the district title, the struggle came in the middle sets.
Bowie started the match well and authoritative as it attacked the Lady Eagles. The Lady Rabbits controlled most of the first set. Holliday tried to make a late run to steal the set, but Bowie held on to win 25-22.
The second set was competitive the first 20 points as the score was locked at 10-10. The Lady Eagles started to pull away as their defense started to lock down.
Blockers at the net were affecting the quality of hits at the net while Holliday’s offense was quick to transition to devastating counters.
The Lady Eagles lead grew to 17-13 and 21-14, coasting to the finish to tie the match winning 25-16.
The only thing the Lady Rabbits could do was try to brush that off and move forward, but the third set saw them immediately fall behind. Holliday was up 15-5 after the first 20 points.
Bowie’s offense continued to effectively attack the Lady Eagles. While the Lady Rabbits serve-receive was relatively fine during this, Bowie just could not crack Holliday enough to keep pace.
The Lady Eagles won the set 25-15 to go up 2-1. The Lady Rabbits would have to figure something out if they wanted to have a chance to win the match in five sets, but first they would have to win the fourth set.
It was a back-and-forth affair for all of the set, with neither team able to pull ahead by more than two points at a time. With the score tied at 20-20, it was either team’s set to win if it could catch fire down the stretch.
It looked like Bowie was going to pull it off. Up 23-22, Holliday would not go away easily as the scores were tied at 25-25.
With the set going to the first team to pull ahead by two points, the Lady Rabbits had two chances to win the set, but the Lady Eagles came back to win the next point both times.
Eventually Holliday pulled away by the two points to win the set 29-27 and win the match overall.
Bowie plays its first home district game at 6 p.m. on Sept. 15 against Henrietta.

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