The Bowie Lady Rabbits won an up and down five-set match at Paradise on Tuesday night.
The Lady Rabbits were coming off a tough, but positive stretch at their final tournament and was trying to keep that energy and level of competition up.
The Lady Panthers came into the game ranked in the top 20 in the state in 3A according to the Texas Girls Coaching Association so Bowie knew it would not be easy.
For most of the first set the Lady Rabbits made it look easy though. They led by multiple points for most of the set, with the biggest lead being 19-11 at one point as Paradise was not sharp at first.
The Lady Panthers then came storming back to make it a set as Bowie tried to close it out while not completely losing all of its momentum. The Lady Rabbits did eventually win the set 25-22, but how the set ended was telling of things to come.
In a reversal from the first set, it was Paradise who got out to a big early lead in the second set. The Lady Panthers scored the first seven points as Bowie had trouble receiving Paradise’s server for a stretch.
The Lady Rabbits cut the lead to five points 10-5, but could not get much closer for the rest of the set. With the lead extending to 19-11 for Paradise, there was no big comeback for Bowie to try and get any momentum going.
The Lady Panthers won 25-16 to tie the match at 1-1.
The beginning of the third set had a long 5-10 minute stretch of inaction after the first two points were played. Some error had the Lady Rabbits out of their rotation and despite protests from Coach Breanna Jones, Bowie just had to play on.
For most of the set being out of rotation did not seem to negatively affect the Lady Rabbits as they led for the majority. Up 16-14 and both teams playing competitive, Paradise then went on an 8-2 run to take the lead.
Bowie could not recover as the Lady Panthers won the set 25-21 to take the match lead 2-1.
It looked like the match was heading towards an end in the fourth set in favor of Paradise. Still in control, Paradise got out to a lead early in the set and led 10-5.
Instead of giving up, the Lady Rabbits came back to tie the score immediately at 10-10. The two teams traded one-point leads for the next 20 points, with Bowie opening up a small lead 21-19 heading into the final stretch.
The Lady Rabbits were then able to close out the set well as they won 25-21 to tie the match at 2-2 and force a fifth and final set.
With the set played to 15 instead of 25, fifth sets are much more tight as each point and lead is precious since there are up to 20 less points.
Therefore when Bowie went up 6-1 at the start, a lot of the pressure and drama seemed to disappear. Paradise then won the next three points to cut the lead to 6-4 to rise the tension back a bit.
The Lady Rabbits extended their lead again to 9-5, but again the Lady Panthers came back to make it 10-8.
Then Bowie won the next five points with solid play to win the set 15-8 and the match 3-2, ending an up and down frustrating game with a little bit of an anti-climax.

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