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Lady Panthers loses tough one

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The Saint Jo Lady Panthers lost their first game of the season falling to 3A Valley View on Tuesday.
The Lady Panthers lost 3-1 against the Lady Eagles in a match where each set could have gone either way.
It was a raucous environment led by the Saint Jo student section which was unusual for such an early season game. It gave the match a much bigger feeling than just the third game of the season, especially since the crowd was not as big as the Lady Panthers will eventually play in front of this season.
Saint Jo came into the match winning both of its games the first week of the season without dropping a set, a great start for the mostly freshman populated team.
The Lady Panthers got their first tough test on Tuesday playing against a bigger school.
It was back and forth in the first set until mid-way through when Saint Jo opened up with an 18-12 lead.
The Lady Eagles got back into it to cut the lead down to 21-19, but the Lady Panthers closed the set off well to win 25-22.
The second set saw Saint Jo have a rough start as the team fell behind 8-2. The Lady Panthers came storming back to retake the lead 11-9 before the teams were tied up at 15-15.
The two teams exchanged four-point swings to tie the score back up at 21-21. It was point-for-point the rest of the way, with Valley View pulling out the narrow win 25-23 to tie the match up at 1-1.
The third set saw Saint Jo again fall behind early on 11-4. Playing from behind, the Lady Panthers cut the lead as close to two, down 16-14.
Down 23-17, it looked like the Lady Eagles had an easy path to winning the third set. Saint Jo came all the way back to make Valley View earn it and ultimately fell just a few points short.
Serving down 24-23, the Lady Panthers committed a service violation to give the Lady Eagles the final point to win the set 25-23 and the lead.
The fourth set again saw Saint Jo fall behind, down 15-10 before storming back to tie the set up at 16-16. Valley View got another lead and extended it to 22-18.
The Lady Panthers made one final storming comeback attempt to cut it to one point down 24-23, but the Lady Eagles closed the set to win 25-23 and the match 3-1.

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

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Bowie Basketball Interview

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Interview with Bowie basketball players Parker Riddle (left) and Payton Holt following their win against Bellevue on Nov. 19, 2024.
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Two Bowie graduates play in PGA University Championship

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(Courtesy photo)

Two former Bowie boy’s golf members played in the PGA University Championship on Nov. 12-13. (L-R) Cy Egenbacher and Imanol Walker are both in the Sam Houston University PGA Golf Managerment program. The team finished 16th overall. Egenbacher shot 168 during the two rounds and finished tied for 67th. Walker shot 180 and finished 84th. The tournament is a fun one for univesities that have PGA Golf Management programs, which is for individuals who want to work in the golf industry after graduation.

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Lady Panthers fall in the regional final

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The Saint Jo Lady Panthers start to embrace after the final point was scored and the match was over as the realization set in it was the last time for six of the players on a high school volleyball court. (Photo by Jennifer Gaston)

The Saint Jo Lady Panthers came up short at the regional final for the third straight season, one game away from state, on Saturday at the regional tournament in Midlothian.
The Lady Panthers beat Evant in straight sets 3-0 on Friday to reach the final game against Harrold which they lost 3-0.
Saint Jo knew before the season even started it would likely come to this big challenge, but it still had to go through all the steps to get there.
The Panthers reached the regional finals the previous two seasons, losing both times to eventual state champion Blum.
With district realignment meant a new region so a rematch with a Blum program that had graduated several key players from those teams would have to wait until state possibly.
Instead, a showdown against last year’s state runner-up Harrold was forecast in the regional final.
With the team having six seniors, with five of them having been on varsity since they were freshman, it was this year or bust for Saint Jo.
First, the Lady Panthers had to beat Evant. The Lady Elks leaned heavily on a big front court player. When she rotated to the back row, Evant showed almost no net resistance which meant Saint Jo hitters had free reign during that time.
The Lady Panthers won each set pretty easily, with the scores being 25-17, 25-17 and 25-19.
This set up the match with Harrold the team had been anticipating. The Lady Hornets had been at or near the top of the state standings since the beginning of the season.
Harrold had so much respect it had even played bigger local schools this season, beating Bowie in straight sets and Nocona in five sets during its pre-district schedule.
The two teams had met earlier in the season when the Lady Hornets attended Saint Jo’s hosted tournament. The two teams met in the tournament championship where Harrold won 2-1.
Still, with the tournament format being a best of three instead of five and the match after playing an exhausting schedule of five matches the previous two days, that result was not gospel, especially two months later.
The challenge is Harrold had multiple big hitters at the net, which is a big deal since most 1A teams are lucky to have one or two, which meant constant pressure on Saint Jo’s defense.
This also meant the Lady Panthers constantly had to find ways to attack the Lady Hornet defense as well or it would face strong hit after strong hit which was unsustainable for any team.
The first set saw the Lady Hornets get out to a good start before the Lady Panthers rallied back and took a little lead 8-7. Unfortunately, it started turn from there.
Harrold had some good runs from the service line that Saint Jo struggled to make much offense out of and led to the Lady Hornets pulling away. Harrold won 4-1 to get the lead to 11-9 and then extended it to 14-11, 17-13. Another 4-1 run and the Lady Hornets could smell the end of the first set coming.
The Lady Hornets won 25-17 to take the lead 1-0.
Saint Jo needed to bounce back, but unfortunately never got anything going in set two.
Harrold led 4-1 and then 8-2. The Lady Panthers would have needed a huge run at some point from the service line to get back into the set, but it never came as the Lady Hornets lead grew more and more.
Harrold took set two 25-13 to go up 2-0 and had all of the momentum.
Saint Jo had its back against the wall, knowing the only option was to hope for a comeback that would lead to a fifth set, but to get there it needed to win set three.
The Lady Panthers initially started on the right foot. After falling being 4-1 to start the previous two sets, it was Saint Jo that started well up 4-1. Unfortunately, the Lady Hornets came roaring back, going on an 8-2 run as it led 9-6, then 12-8 and 15-10.
It looked like it was heading towards a similar place as set one with Harrold slowly running away with the set before the Lady Panthers made one last gasp.
Saint Jo eventually cut the lead down to one point, trailing 20-19 as the set entered the final stretch and the Lady Panthers had their best momentum of the match.
Unfortunately, it was Harrold that was able to close the set out with momentum, earning the final five points to win 25-19 and the match 3-0.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News. For pictures from Friday’s match, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870620&T=1

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