Bowie
The Bowie Lady Rabbits played their best match of the district schedule on Friday against Iowa Park, but unfortunately the team lost in the fifth set.
The Lady Hawks won 3-2, coming back from a 2-1 deficit against a Lady Rabbits team desperately needing something good to happen for them.
Bowie came into the match looking for its first district win and playing for pride now that a playoff berth is not possible. Iowa Park needed to a win to keep it in the playoff hunt.
The Lady Rabbits played well in a competitive first set and was able to close it out to win 25-22 and take an early lead.
Unfortunately, that did not carry over to set two. The Lady Hawks got an early lead and Bowie just never recovered. Iowa Park won easily 25-12 to tie the match at 1-1.
In the third set it was the Lady Rabbits that got the early lead, but the Lady Hawks were able to hover around and even tie the score up at 15-15 midway through.
Bowie was able to close out the set well, winning 25-20 to take a 2-1 lead and being one set away from its first district victory.
Unfortunately, set four was not the set. Iowa Park had the lead from the beginning, but the Lady Rabbits were doing a good job of staying within reach of two or three points.
Down 16-14, the Lady Hawks opened up the lead and went on to finish the set on a 9-3 run to win the set 25-18. With the score tied at 2-2, it was heading into the fifth set.
Usually the fifth set is its own thing, independent of anything that came before it.
With the stakes being at its highest and with the set ending at 15 instead of 25, everything is much more heightened and things like momentum are not always a factor in the set.
Unfortunately, the momentum from the end of set four did carry over for the Lady Hawks into set five.
While the opening five points were back and forth as Iowa Park led only 3-2, after that it was all the Lady Hawks.
Iowa Park won 12 of the final 13 points as it won the set 15-3 and the match 3-2.

Nocona
The Nocona Lady Indians took care of Petrolia at home on Saturday afternoon quickly.
The Lady Indians won in straight sets 3-0 against the Lady Pirates.
Nocona was coming off its first district loss in the last three seasons at Windthorst and needed a pick-me-up match.
It proved to be one as the Lady Indians won sets in rapid succession 25-10, 25-11 and 25-12.
Raylea Bowles led the team with nine kills. Meg Meekins had a team high 13 assists and nine digs while adding six kills.

Saint Jo vs Bellevue
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers wrapped up the first round of district play with a quick win at Bellevue on Friday.
The Lady Panthers won in straight sets 3-0 against the inexperienced Lady Eagles.
Saint Jo came in undefeated in district had yet to drop a set even. Bellevue was 1-2 and hoping it could maybe catch the confident Lady Panthers napping.
Unfortunately for the Lady Eagles, Saint Jo was focused from beginning to end, making quick work of Bellevue with set scores 25-11, 25-10 and 25-5.

Prairie Valley vs Forestburg
The Prairie Valley Lady Bulldogs won at Forestburg on Friday night to wrap up the first round of district play.
The Lady Bulldogs won 3-1 against the Lady Horns.
Prairie Valley came into the match confident it could secure second place in district against a Forestburg team that had worked through adversity but also had a district record of 2-1.
The Lady Bulldogs came in and won the first set 25-13 to take a lead. Thinking the match would be easy, instead the Lady Horns came back and won the closest set of the match 25-21 to tie the score up at 1-1.
The loss seemed to wake Prairie Valley back up and the Lady Bulldogs went on to win the next two sets 25-16 and 25-15 to secure the victory.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News. For pictures from the Bowie game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6869807&T=1