SPORTS
Nocona volleyball breaks 10 year streak
The Nocona Lady Indians are heading to the regional tournament for the first time in 10 years after beating Lindsay on Tuesday night.
The Lady Indians won 3-1 against the Lady Knights in a rematch from last year’s playoffs.
Nocona was coming off a close five-set win against Como-Pickton from the previous area round match. It was the first close game the Lady Indians had played in nearly month after blowing through their district schedule and bi-district playoff match.
Funny enough, the last close match before district play came against Lindsay, which Nocona won in a five-set thriller on the road.
The Lady Knights had beaten the Lady Indians last year in the playoffs in the same regional quarterfinals round. Lindsay then went on to make it all the way to the state championship match before losing to Windthorst.
The Lady Knights graduated several key players from that team while Nocona returned most of the same faces from last year, but one year older and better.
The Lady Indians were probably slightly favored, but knew from the close win the previous month and a 2-1 loss against Lindsay in a tournament the month before that, the match would be tough.
Nocona came out with so much energy from the team and crowd that it seemed like it was going to set the roof on fire.
That energy lasted for the first 20 points as the Lady Indians jumped out to a 15-5 lead in the first set.
From there the Lady Knights settled down and started to play better and the blistering one-sided pace from Nocona cooled off a little bit.
With a 10-point lead, the Lady Indians were able to play even the rest of the set to win comfortably 25-15, but Lindsay had now woken up.
The Lady Knights went on a 7-3 run early in set two to open up an 8-7 lead into a 15-10. The lead kept growing as Lindsay’s big hitters started hitting their spots. The Lady Knights tied the match up, winning set two 25-17.
The third set was back-and-forth through the first 25 points. Nocona got some advantage, up four points 17-13. From there, the Lady Indians had control and were able to not let Lindsay string enough points in a row to come back.
Nocona won the set 25-20 and looked to close things out in set four, up 2-1.
The Lady Knights were looking to force another five-set match. Neither team could get up by more than two points the entire set.
Lindsay got a 16-14 lead and was able to keep it until the Lady Indians retook the lead 23-22 and looked to close the match.
The Lady Knights came back and had two set points ahead 25-24 and 26-25. Nocona won the next point both time to keep the set alive.
After tying the score at 26-26, the Lady Indians were able to win the next two points, closing out the match on a spike from Meg Meekins. Her teammates piled on her as Nocona won the set 28-26 and the match 3-1.
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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