SPORTS
Volleyball Roundup
Nocona
The Nocona Lady Indians were able to pull off their biggest win of the season on senior day on Saturday afternoon.
The Lady Indians beat Windthorst 3-1 to set up a chance for a share of the district title.
Nocona knew this would the final chance if it wanted to keep up its streak of district titles to three. State-ranked Windthorst was the only team to beat the Lady Indians in district, winning the first match 3-0 though the first two sets could have gone either way.
Nocona had a big lead in the first set 20-10, but the Lady Trojans climbed back to cut the lead to three points 24-21. Thankfully, the Lady Indians did just enough to pull out the win 25-22 to take the lead.
The second set was back and forth. Windthorst had an early lead 10-5, but Nocona powered back and went on a 12-3 run to go up 17-13. The Lady Trojans came back to cut the lead to one point 18-17 and then it was back and forth.
The Lady Indians had set point up 24-23, but unfortunately could not close. Windthorst won the next three points to steal the set 26-24 and tie the match at 1-1.
The important third set proved to be one of the most competitive from the beginning. It was point for point up until Nocona led 18-17.
The Lady Indians were opening a bit of a lead up 21-18 when a controversial call on the sideline was reversed not once, but twice in favor of Nocona. The Lady Indians were up 22-18 and took that momentum to finish out the set to win 25-21. Nocona led 2-1.
It seemed that controversy and loss of momentum affected Windthorst at the start of the fourth set because the Lady Trojans never got into it. The Lady Indians were up 10-5 before finding themselves up 20-10 like in the first set. Unlike the first set, Nocona closed out the set and match right, winning the final five points with ease to earn the victory 25-10, 3-1.
Bowie
The Bowie Lady Rabbits season came to an end on Friday night in Vernon.
The Lady Lions beat the Lady Rabbits in three competitive sets that did not go Bowie’s way.
The Lady Rabbits came into the match hoping it could end their season on a high note after much of the final two months of the season were a struggle to get wins.
Bowie knew it could play with Vernon despite the Lady Lions winning in straight sets the first time, two of the sets were close.
Unfortunately, it was more of the same on Friday. Each set saw the Lady Rabbits compete well, but they just could not wrestle control of the lead in any of the sets.
Vernon with the set scores being 25-20, 25-19 and 25-20.
Saint Jo vs Gold-Burg
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers beat Gold-Burg on Friday.
The Lady Panthers won in straight sets 3-0 against the Lady Bears in a match that was over pretty quickly.
Saint Jo came in undefeated in district, state-ranked and gearing itself up for a long playoff run. Gold-Burg had not won a district match and was hoping it could finish its season on a good note in its final game.
The Lady Panthers won with the set scores being 25-9, 25-7 and 25-7.
Prairie Valley vs Bellevue
The Prairie Valley Lady Bulldogs got more than they bargained for when they traveled to Bellevue on Friday.
The Lady Bulldogs barely held off the Lady Eagles from coming back to win in a five-set roller coaster match 3-2.
Prairie Valley came into the match sitting comfortably in second place in district.
Bellevue had lost its previous match earlier in the week to Forestburg to most likely kiss its playoff hopes goodbye unless it could somehow pull off upset wins against the top two teams in the district in its final two games. The Lady Eagles nearly accomplished the first part of that plan.
The first set was the competitive at the end and went down to the wire, but the older more experienced Prairie Valley team closed it out to win 25-22. That momentum stayed through into set two. Bellevue never was able to get into the set and the Lady Bulldogs easily won 25-11 to go up 2-0.
With their backs against the wall on the final home game, the Lady Eagles fought back. The third set was pretty competitive, but Bellevue this time was able to close things out to win 25-21 to keep the match alive.
Set four was competitive as well until the end of it when the Lady Eagles closed it out strong. Bellevue won 25-19 to set up a fifth and final set.
Despite the Lady Eagles having all of the momentum, fifth sets do not always take that into consideration. With the key score moved from 25 to 15, there are fewer points overall and any point won or lead gets multiplied in everyone’s head by 10 times.
That must have been what happened because Prairie Valley shook itself from the past two sets and won anticlimactically 15-6 to earn the victory 3-2.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News. For more pictures from the Nocona volleyball match, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870073&T=1
The Red River High School Bass Club competed this past weekend, May 31 – June 1, at the State Tournament on Lake Conroe for the two-day tournament.
Two of the teams from Montague County traveled south to try their best at the culmination of the year for the state title. Teams were able to pre-fish on Friday before the Saturday and Sunday competition. On Friday, there was a flipping contest for the youth and Cooper Johnson won third overall and won a $500 scholarship and an Academy gift card.
The club’s two teams who competed were Lane Smith/Colt Henry with boat captain Jimmy Smith. The team placed 63rd with a total of 16.22 pounds. The second team of Cooper Johnson/Corbyn Patton and boat captain Jayson Toerck placed 169th with a total weight of 2.29 pounds.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
The Maskat Shrine Oil Bowl is this week on June 6-7 and graduating athletes from Bowie, Nocona and Saint Jo are confirmed to be playing.
In total, seven athletes from Bowie, five from Nocona and three from Saint Jo are planning to play in the all-star games this week. Nocona also will have a pair of coaches participating as well.
The girl’s basketball game kicks off events on June 6, scheduled for 6 p.m. at Wichita Falls Memorial High School. In the game, the east team will have Nocona players Avery Crutsinger, Meg Meekins and Reagan Phipps playing while Kyler Spitzer and Clayton Brown coach them one last time.
On the west team, Saint Jo’s Payzlie Cervantes is confirmed to be playing.
The boy’s basketball game is scheduled to follow at 7:30 p.m. On the east team, Bowie’s Boston Farris and Nocona’s Jose Gomez Jr. will be playing.
On June 7, the volleyball games are scheduled to start at 4 p.m. with the small school game. On the west team, Nocona’s Kaygan Stone and Saint Jo’s Taylor Patrick are confirmed to play. On the east team, Saint Jo’s Aubrey Morman will get to play her teammate.
There are no local athletes confirmed to be playing in the big school volleyball game.
The final event is the football game, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Memorial Stadium. It is an all Bowie affair with six players confirmed to be playing for the east team: Justin Clark, Jorge De Leon, Hunter Fluitt and Braden Rhyne, Preacher Chambers and Moh Azouak.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
Nocona Independent School District officials looked inward for a new athletic director/head football coach, selecting Jeff Hill for the position.
Hill, who served last year as Nocona football’s offensive coordinator and also led the softball program to the playoffs for the first time in a while as its head coach, was upgraded to the role.
This came on the heels of former Athletic Director Blake Crutsinger, who served in the role the last four years, resigned in May.
For Hill, the choice to apply for the position was a no brainer. His one year in Nocona had impressed upon him and his wife that it was the place they would like to be long term.
“I’m looking for a town to raise my kids in and Nocona has treated my family really well,” Hill said. “There are some really good people. The kids work hard. Everything I am looking for in a hometown is right here in Nocona and I want to try and make it as best as it can be, especially through athletics.”
Before Nocona, Hill served as the athletic director at S&S Consolidated while also spending time at Hebron and Whitewright in his coaching career.
Hill expresses great respect for the departing Crutsinger and besides changing a few small things in how he personally wants to do things, he is not trying to come in with a sweeping restructuring of the whole athletic department.
The program had five of its six team sports make the playoffs, with volleyball playing in the regional final and the girl’s basketball team winning the state championship.
That along with two athletes competing at the state championship in cross country and track with one earning a gold medal, it was one of the more successful school years in athletic program history.
“Coach Crutsinger was awesome and did a great job so honestly just little tweaks, a little bit of structure and cohesion amongst the coaching staff between boys and girls,” Hill said. “I hope to keep the winning tradition going overall in the athletic department.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
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