SPORTS
Prairie Valley beats Saint Jo 3-0
In the fourth straight year Prairie Valley and Saint Jo met in the playoffs, it was the Lady Bulldogs who came out on top on Tuesday night.
The older and more experienced Prairie Valley team won in straight sets against the young and spunky Lady Panthers.
These programs are used to seeing each other in a win or go home scenario this time of year.
Until this season, the teams met three straight times in the regional quarterfinal round, with the winner earning a trip to the regional tournament.
Saint Jo won in 2018 and 2020 while Prairie Valley won in 2019. The pattern kept true for the Lady Bulldogs.
Prairie Valley actually entered the game as the lower seed, finishing in third place in its district behind Electra and Bryson. Saint Jo lost its play-in game against Graford for the first seed after splitting the district title with the Lady Rabbits.
The two teams had played back in August at Saint Jo where the Lady Bulldogs won that game.
Both of these teams have been through a lot since then.
The Lady Panthers have been dealing with the majority of their team being freshman and getting up to speed playing high school volleyball.
Prairie Valley had to deal with injuries to key players heading into and during most of the first round of district play.
The first set saw the Lady Bulldogs race out into a lead up 9-3. The lead grew to almost double-digits at one point, but Saint Jo came back to cut it to 17-12.
From there though Prairie Valley closed out the set strong, going on an 8-3 run to win 25-15 and take a 1-0 lead.
The second set started okay, but once the Lady Bulldogs got the lead it just started to snowball for the Lady Panthers.
Up 6-4, Prairie Valley won 10 of the next 12 points thanks to a flurry of serves Saint Jo had trouble returning.
The Lady Bulldogs never let the Lady Panthers get any sort of momentum as they won the set 25-8 to go up 2-0.
Saint Jo came out in the third set with nothing to lose as its season was on the line.
The Lady Panthers took an early 4-0 lead and kept it for most of the early set. Prairie Valley hung around, but was still trailing at 10-5, 14-10 and 19-15.
The Lady Bulldogs came on late and tied the match at 21-21. Saint Jo took the lead back 23-21 and looked like it might hang on to win the set it had controlled.
Prairie Valley won the next two points to tie the match back up at 23-23. A hitting error from the Lady Panthers on the next point gave the Lady Bulldogs match point.
A tipped ball over from Karagan Ritchie bounced sideways off a Saint Jo player who tried to save it. Prairie Valley won the set 25-23 and the match 3-0.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
In its first match since last year’s state semifinal appearance, Saint Jo hosted Bryson Aug. 11 and took a 25-13, 25-12, 25-21 win over the Cowgirls.
The Lady Panthers lost some talent to graduation but have five seniors ready to have a successful season. Savannah Hil, one of the five, got Saint Jo rolling offensively with a four-point serving string, including a pair of aces. Abby Carter’s kill and Kamron Skidmore’s block helped put the Lady Panthers up 5-2 in game one.
Hadleigh Moore added a four-point string of her own to extend the lead to 10-3. Tatum Morman’s pair, helped by a Hill kill, gave Saint Jo a 14-5 lead. Bryson got within five before a Hill 3-pointer, with help by a Carter kill, put the lead back at 18-10.
After an Olivia Johnson kill broke serve, Jordyn O’Neal served up the final five points, with Johnson providing a kill to move things along.
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
Despite being the smallest school in the Brock varsity classic volleyball tournament, the Lady Indians finished 4th out of the eight teams there.
After losing to the host team in its first pool play match Aug. 14 18-25, 14-25 and also to Class 3A Wall 12-25, 8-25, Nocona rebounded to close out pool play with a 20-25, 25-23, 25-20 win over Christoval. Sy Parker had 16 kills and 7 blocks in the three matches. Raylea Bowles had 12 kills, 17 digs and served up three aces. Maddyn Bowles had seven kills and 14 digs while Paige Davis had seven kills and 15 digs. Baylee Thomas added 11 digs.
From the setter spot, Kasi Castro had 20 assists, served up five aces and contributed 14 digs. Leah Meekins added 18 assists and six digs during the three matches.
To open Saturday’s bracket play, the Lady Indians posted a 25-18, 18-25, 26-24, 25-19 win over Fort Worth Christian. Castro staked Nocona to a 2-0 lead in game one. Kills by Parker set up pairs of points from Raylea Bowles and Leah Meekins helped Nocona negate an early deficit and take a 10-9 lead.
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
County football teams had their first scrimmage of the season Aug. 14 with mixed results.
Forestburg hosted Azle Christian and Victory Christian. Under a new system with new head coach Cori Hayes, the Longhorns looked pretty good in the coach’s eye.
“The first team looked good,” Hayes explained. “Overall we need to work on our pace and blocking assignments and blocking assignments. Overall we looked good for the new regime.”
Forestburg hits the road to scrimmage Newcastle Aug. 21.
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
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