SPORTS
Prairie Valley wins bi-district match in thrilling fashion
The Prairie Valley Lady Bulldogs survived a battle for their volleyball lives on Tuesday night against Vernon Northside in the bi-district playoff game.
The Lady Bulldogs nearly saw the Lady Indians come back to steal the match before narrowly winning the five-set thriller to continue their season.
Prairie Valley came into the game confident as the higher two seed playing Vernon Northside. This Lady Bulldogs group had won their bi-district playoff match each of the past three seasons, usually with little trouble.
The Lady Indians would prove to be a different breed, being in a district with top-ranked Harrold and a solid Crowell team they narrowly took the second seed from.
The first set was the most lopsided of the match even if the opening 20 points were competitive. Prairie Valley led 11-9 before busting out on a 7-3 run to go up 18-12. The Lady Bulldogs were able to cruise to an easy 25-16 win as they were playing good and getting the result they expected.
The second set saw Prairie Valley start behind a little at 6-4 before going on a great run in the middle of the set to break it open again. The Lady Bulldogs went 12-0 to go up 16-6 and it looked like Prairie Valley was going to be able to coast again to the end.
Northside then started to show a peak of what was to come. The Lady Indians rallied, making the Lady Bulldogs sweat a bit more than they would have liked trying to close out the set.
Prairie Valley still won with a little wiggle room 25-20 and were up 2-0, but Northside played better down the stretch and used that momentum in set three.
Initially the Lady Indians took the early lead, but the Lady Bulldogs tied the score at 10-10. Then Northside went on a 7-3 run and were able to keep that distance until the end of the set as it won 25-21 to extend the match.
Set four was similar at the start. Early leads from the Lady Indians fell away when Prairie Valley caught back up or tied the score, but could not grab control.
With the Lady Bulldogs down only 18-17 heading into the end game, it was Northside that closed the set well. The Lady Indians went on a 4-1 run to open up a 22-18 lead before ultimately winning 25-20 to tie the match.
There was a lot of frustration in the air. While Prairie Valley had lost the two previous sets in competitive fashion, there were plenty of aspects where the team seemed to be fading while Northside was growing in confidence.
The Lady Bulldogs were content to use their superior ball control at times to outpatient the Lady Indians in long rallies. While Prairie Valley had many good plays at the net, several blocks by the overall bigger frontline from Northside seemed to make the Lady Bulldogs more hesitant to hit the ball hard and instead tried to tactfully tip the ball more often then not.
This made points hard to come by and every long rally that did not end up going Prairie Valley’s way in sets three and four sting that much more.
It all had a sinking feeling to it from the Lady Bulldogs perspective as Northside came back and got more confident hitting the ball hard at the net, picking up the tipped balls better and just having the ball bounce its way more and more.
Prairie Valley also got dealt a blow as front line player Abbie Pepper went down with an ankle injury during this time and the Lady Bulldogs had to change rotations on the fly.
With the world falling in around Prairie Valley, the match entered the fifth set.
Thankfully, fifth sets can sometimes be its own entity, separate from the sets that came before. With the stakes winner-take-all and the set played only to 15 instead of 25, every point won and every lead gets multiplied in everyone’s gut tenfold.
That is why when the Lady Bulldogs started the fifth set down 4-0, it seemed like the end was near for this group that feature five senior starters. Still down four points a short time later 6-2, Prairie Valley found a way to come back and won the next five points to take the lead 7-6.
It was game on from there as the teams traded points back-and-forth. Tied at 11-11, it was there when the Lady Bulldogs broke the cycle and won two straight points to take a 13-11 lead.
That opening would be enough as Prairie Valley seized it and won two of the next three points to win the set 15-12 and the match 3-2.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
For more pictures from the match, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870376&T=1
The Bowie Lady Rabbits basketball team started off their season this past week by going 1-1.
The Lady Rabbits won against Dallas Carter 32-14 on the road before losing to Paradise at home 41-24.
Against Dallas Carter to start the season last weekend, Bowie used aggressive defense to limit the Cowgirls to five points or less in every quarter.
The Lady Rabbits struggled to score as well, but were able to convert on several more chances per quarter to keep their lead throughout the game.
Bowie led 12-6 at halftime, but was able to get more on track offensively in the second half to pull away while never giving an inch on defense.
The Lady Rabbits beat the Cowgirls 32-14.
Parker Riddle led the team with eight points while Hanna Bell was right behind her with seven. New varsity players Payton Holt and Laney Enlow added five points.
Unfortunately a few days later Bowie’s home opener against Paradise did not go its way.
The Lady Rabbits struggled to score all game and had trouble slowing down the Lady Cats two leading scorers who combined for 35 of their team’s 41 points.
New varsity player Sadie Weaver led Bowie with seven points while Bell was second with six points.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
The Nocona Lady Indians took care of business to easily beat Seymour on Tuesday night in their bi-district playoff match.
The Lady Indians easily won in straight sets 3-0 against the Lady Panthers in a match that went quick.
Nocona came into the match on a high having overcome Windthorst on its second try to get a share of the district title. Besides those matches against the Lady Trojans, the Lady Indians were breezing through opponents during district play.
Nocona expected to do the same on Tuesday night against a Seymour team that did just enough to make the playoffs in its district.
The Lady Indians won with the set scores being 25-16, 25-11 and 25-11.
Ava Johnson led the team with 18 kills while Jolie Rose was second with six. Meg Meekins had a team high 18 assists while Leah Meekins and Kasi Castro each had 10.
Meg Meekins also led the team with three service aces while Kaygan Stone had two and Castro also had two.
On defense Sy Parker had a team high three blocks while Raylea Bowles had one. Aubree Kleinhans led the team with 10 digs while Johnson was second with nine.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers got themselves a little challenge playing in their area round playoff match on Thursday against Perrin-Whitt.
The Lady Panthers won 3-1 against the Lady Pirates as they started the match on not the best note.
Saint Jo came into the match hoping it could recapture its form during its bi-district schedule. The Lady Panthers breezed through district play, never losing a set and rarely were challenged by anyone but their own high expectations.
Saint Jo had gotten a little on track playing a warm-up match against state-ranked Benjamin earlier in the week and winning 3-1. Still, Perrin-Whitt came in and seemed to surprise the Lady Panthers.
It was rematch since the teams opened the season against the other way back on Aug. 12. That match was a one-sided straight sets win from Saint Jo and the team was used to it being that way against the Lady Pirates.
Since then Perrin-Whitt won 22 matches and only lost to state-ranked Garner in its district. This time around four months later, things were different.
The first set was competitive until the Lady Panthers opened up a 14-11 lead. Instead of taking control, it was the Lady Pirates that came back and went on an 8-2 run. Perrin-Whitt led 19-16.
Even with Saint Jo closing the gap to two points 21-19 heading into the end of the set, it was the Lady Pirates that made the plays and feasted on uncharacteristic Lady Panther mistakes. Perrin-Whitt won 25-22 to take set one and the early lead.
While it was a close set, it was not Saint Jo’s best as more than once communication errors that are long ironed out at this point of the season resulted in points as well as hitting errors around the net.
The loss seemed to serve as a wakeup call for the Lady Panthers heading into set two.
Saint Jo took control of the set early thanks to some aggressive serving, good defensive net play and solid ball control. The Lady Panthers went on an 8-2 run to lead 14-6 and led by double-digits at one point 20-10.
Perrin-Whitt played better down the stretch to make the final score respectable, but Saint Jo won with little drama 25-17 to tie the match at 1-1.
That confidence from how it had won set two led into the set three for Saint Jo. The Lady Panthers were up 5-0 early.
The Lady Pirates cut the lead to as close to three points down 9-6, but from there it was all Saint Jo.
The Lady Panthers at one point opened up a double-digit lead 23-12 before eventually winning the set 25-17 again to take the lead in the match 2-1.
Any of the confidence or fire Perrin-Whitt had at the start of the match seemed to be gone heading into set four and Saint Jo was not letting up.
From the start again, the Lady Panthers took a quick 5-0 lead and never looked back.
It was a quick procession to the end of the match as Saint Jo’s lead grey to 17-8 to 21-9 to eventually 25-12.
The Lady Panthers won the match 3-1 to move on to the regional quarterfinals.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News. For more pictures from the match click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870377&T=1
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