The Bowie Lady Rabbits hosted Peaster on Tuesday in front of a loud crowd that got into the close five-set match.
The Lady Rabbits came up just short at the end as the Lady Eagles won the fifth set with the narrowest of margins to win the match 3-2.
Bowie came out looking good early in the first set, building a small 4-1 lead. Peaster slowly came back and tied the score at 10-10, before taking a small lead 13-12.
Despite the lead being small, the Lady Rabbits could not break through. Down 21-19, the Lady Greyhounds won the next five points 4-1 to close out the set, winning 25-20.
Bowie built a subtle lead slowly to start the second set. Winning four five-point exchanges 3-2 made the lead 12-8.
That four point lead would hold for the rest of the set as the Lady Rabbits size at the net on defense and the offensive firepower allowed them to play even to win the second set 25-21.
The third set had the right amount of competitive play and drama to it the set deserved. Putting the winner up 2-1 and forcing the loser of the set to win the two sets in a row if it wanted to win.
The first 20 points saw the Lady Greyhounds early two-point lead vanish as the teams were locked at 10-10. Bowie took control and led 18-15 before things started to come loose.
Peaster won the next seven straight points to go up 22-18 as the Lady Rabbits struggled to stave off the attack. After a timeout, Bowie turned things around by winning the next three points to cut the lead to 22-21.
After exchanging points, the Lady Rabbits tied the score at 24-24 before winning the next two points to win the set 26-24, going up 2-1 after winning the last two sets.
The Lady Greyhounds were either going to lay down from losing such a close set or go down fighting in the fourth set, with no in-between. Peaster chose the latter and Bowie was not ready.
An early 6-4 lead from the Lady Greyhounds quickly got out of hand as Peaster won 13 of the next 15 points to grow the lead to 19-6. No matter how many timeouts Coach Breanna Jones took, the competitive play of the first three sets gave way to a Bowie team that just could not attack or defend at a level they had been.
The set was lost and could not be redeemed as the Lady Greyhounds won 25-10. All Jones and the Lady Rabbits could do was turn around and get focused in a winner-take-all fifth set in which they could only play better than they had in the fourth set.
With the format the first to 15 instead of 25, every point matters even more than in other sets as there are fewer points to win.
Bowie took a small 4-2 lead early, but Peaster closed the gap to tie the score 4-4. After trading some points back and forth, the Lady Greyhounds took an 8-6 lead. This time the Lady Rabbits cam back to tie the score at 9-9.
The two teams traded points for the next six points, tied at 12-12. Peaster then won the next two points to take a 14-12 lead and had match point. Bowie staved off match point to make it 14-13 and was looking to tie the score up again.
A double block on the right side against a Lady Greyhound hitter at the net was deflected out of bounds and that was all she wrote. Peaster won the set 15-13 to win the match 3-2.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.