The Prairie Valley Lady Bulldogs got an early season test in their first home game on Friday when they hosted 2A Newcastle.
The Lady Cats pushed the Lady Bulldogs to five sets, where the Lady Bulldogs were able to come away with the win in one of the more stranger and up and down five set matches you will ever see.
Prairie Valley came out of the gates hot, bombing away serves that Newcastle had trouble doing anything with. The Lady Bulldogs won the first five points and looked to be in control.
Newcastle settled down and once it did, the taller team started to do some damage to Prairie Valley. The Lady Cats won 12 of the next 15 points and led 12-8.
The Lady Bulldogs then won eight of the next 10 points to retake the lead 16-14. Back came Newcastle, winning eight of the next 10 points and looked poised to take set one up 22-18.
Prairie Valley closed the gap to make it close, but the Lady Cats closed it out by the skin of their teeth to win 25-23 to win set one.
Despite just losing in the most disheartening way, the Lady Bulldogs started set two in eerily similar fashion to set one. The first five points for Prairie Valley came with little challenge from Newcastle, whose serve-receive was struggling to mount any offense.
Unlike the first set though, the Lady Cats never did turn things around. So many points came from unforced errors from Newcastle that the set went by quick. The Lady Cats never reached double digits as the Lady Bulldogs won easily 25-8 to tie the match at one set each.
The question was what sort of set would the fans see in the third? Turns out it would be another competitive one like the first set.
Prairie Valley started out strong, up 4-1 to start. Newcastle would eight of the next 10 points to take the lead 9-6.
The rest of the set was pretty straight forward. The Lady Bulldogs never let the Lady Cats pull away by more than two or three points, but also never could change momentum up to take the lead.
Newcastle closed the set strong with Prairie Valley nipping at its heels, losing by the slimmest of margins 25-23.
Needing to win the next two sets for a chance to win, how the Lady Bulldogs came out mentally to start the fourth set would be important to get the match to a fifth set.
It was another strong start for Prairie Valley to start set four, up 4-1 on the strength of its serving. Strangely, the set played out a lot like the second set. The Lady Cats never found their footing as the Lady Bulldogs lead kept growing and growing with little effort.
It seemed to breeze by even faster than the second set as both teams knew a fifth set was coming to win it all. Prairie Valley won the fourth set 25-6 to force a fifth set.
Coming off a truly one sided set win heading into the final one, you would think the Lady Bulldogs would be fully confident they had the match wrapped up. Unfortunately, with Newcastle showing extended stretches of competitive play and having the advantage of size at the net, there was still unease with which Lady Cats team would show up in the fifth set.
As the fifth set started, the usual hot start Prairie Valley had gotten in each of the first four sets did not come as both teams traded the first four points.
The Lady Bulldogs did take a two point lead after, but Newcastle tied it back at 6-6. Prairie Valley then again took a two point lead that eventually grew to four points 11-7. As long as the Lady Cats did not go an a several point run, the Lady Bulldogs were in control. Thankfully, Prairie Valley stayed in control and won the fifth set 15-11 to win the match 3-2.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.