The Bowie Lady Rabbits kicked off their season on the road Monday night at Archer City.
The Lady Rabbits made quick work of the Lady Cats, winning in straight sets with the scores 25-19, 25-14, 25-21.
Bowie was coming into the match in good shape this year with a full week of practice on top of two different scrimmages thanks to how the schedule worked out. The team returns all but two players and features mostly upper classmen with several years of varsity experience, but the biggest change comes on the sideline. Ashley Sanders is the third coach in program history.
Despite many of the same players, there was some lineup shuffling to do. With one of if not the best libero in program history graduated, senior BJ Mills is stepping into the role after playing all the way around last year as an outside hitter.
Last year’s team opened its season against Archer City as well and it took a comeback to win a tight match in five sets. This year’s match was much less dramatic.
Bowie took the early lead and never trailed in the first set. Up 12-8 after 20 points, the Lady Rabbits went 7-3 over the next 10 points to run away with the match.
Up 22-13, the team got a bit sloppy down the stretch, allowing the Lady Cats to win six of the last nine points. Still, it only made the final set score not as bad as most of the set was as Bowie won 25-19 to go up 1-0.
The second set started a bit more competitively. After the first 10 points, the score was tied 5-5. After that, it was all the Lady Rabbits again.
Bowie went on a 13-2 run to build a double-digit lead at one point 18-7. The final points were played even as Bowie won easily 25-14 to take a decisive 2-0 lead.
The third set ended up being the most competitive from beginning to end despite the Lady Rabbits never trailing. Bowie led 7-3 after 10 points and 12-8 after 20 points and 16-14 after 30.
The Lady Rabbits led for most of the set, but there was never that point like in the first two where they went on a big run.
Archer City played more solid, Bowie racked up several hitting errors and struggled more with serve-receive that prevented the team from fully getting going.
The Lady Rabbits led 21-19 heading into the final points few points of the set and match. From there, the Bowie team was able to win four of the next six points to close things out, winning the set 25-21 and the match 3-0.

To read the full story and see more pictures from the game, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.