The Bowie Lady Rabbits started district off on the right foot on Wednesday with a win against Henrietta.
The Lady Rabbits beat the Lady Cats 3-1, coming back from a bad first set to win the match.
Bowie came into the match with something to prove. Henrietta has finished in front of the Lady Rabbits in district the past two seasons, beating them the last four district games and going on long playoff runs.
Despite both teams graduating key players, including a few playing at Midwestern State University this year, it’s still recent enough history to linger on this team.
Bowie has gotten some measure of a mental lead this season, beating the Lady Cats twice in two different tournaments on the pre-district schedule. Still, tournament format with fewer stakes is different than district play.
Some of that and maybe some nerves might have played into why the first set started so bad for the Lady Rabbits. Henrietta jumped on Bowie, getting out to 5-0 lead. The Lady Rabbits battled back to cut the lead to 9-6, but then the Lady Cats went on a 9-1 run to break open the set.
Bowie had no chance as it lost set one 25-13. The good news for the Lady Rabbits is they could only play better.
The start of the second set was a bit more competitive for the first 10 points. Bowie was up by a small 6-4 margin before it reeled off five straight points to open up an 11-4 lead.
Henrietta fought back and tied the score up at 13-13. The Lady Rabbits would shortly get another nice lead 20-15, but again the Lady Cats came back, cutting the lead to 21-20.
Thankfully, Bowie would close out the set strong, winning four of the next five points to win the set 25-21 and tie the match at 1-1.
Now the Lady Rabbits were rolling, there was no slowing them down.
The third set saw the score stay competitive for the first 20 points as Bowie led only 11-9. The Lady Rabbits then went on a 9-1 run to break the set open now leading by double-digits 20-10. There was no big comeback from Henrietta as Bowie took the set by the same amount it lost in set one 25-13, to take the lead 2-1.
The fourth set saw the Lady Cats come out and take some control up 8-7. The Lady Rabbits then went on an 11-4 run to make it 18-12 and never looked back. Bowie closed out the set strong with little drama 25-16, winning the match 3-1.

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