SPORTS
Volleyball Roundup
Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers won a match against 2A Poolville at home on Tuesday night.
The Lady Panthers won 3-1, letting the third set get away from them as the Lady Monarchs kept them honest.
Saint Jo was coming off a great showing at their hosted tournament the previous week, coming in second place and playing up to where it hopes it can be, but also with more room to grow.
Poolville had the size at the net to make the Lady Panthers work and showed that to start the match.
The Lady Monarchs got the early lead 4-1, but Saint Jo answered back and slowly crept at Poolville’s advantage before tying things up at 15-15.
Then both teams exchanged great 5-0 serve runs to tie the score back up at 20-20. The Lady Panthers were able to play the cleaner stretch in the end game to win the first set 25-22.
That momentum from closing out such a competitive set seemed to propel Saint Jo in set two and the Lady Monarchs showed little resistance. The Lady Panthers started the set up 8-2. Poolville came back to make it a little close 9-6.
Then Saint Jo went on a 14-1 run to break the set open. The Lady Panthers won easily 25-10 to go up 2-0 and with all of the momentum in the world.
Saint Jo then started set three 5-0 and things looked like it was going to be a repeat of set two. The Lady Monarchs came back initially to cut the lead down to 11-9, but the Lady Panthers were still in control 15 points later up 19-16 heading into the end game.
Then Poolville tied the score up at 20-20 and things seemed to get real. Saint Jo was going to have to dig a bit deeper than it thought to pull out a set that could go either way in the final 10 points.
The Lady Panthers held a narrow 23-22 lead, but unfortunately it was the Lady Monarchs that came through to win two of the next three points. Poolville took the set 26-24 to force a fourth set, right when everybody thought it was about to end early and easily.
Saint Jo knew it let the end of the match slip from its grasp. To not let the match further slip away and give the Lady Monarchs more hope to potentially come back and win whole thing in five sets, the Lady Panthers would have to show up well from the start of set four.
The first 10 points were a competitive back-and-forth as neither team looked to get much of an advantage, with the score tied at 5-5. Then Saint Jo went on a 4-1 run and got the opening it needed.
The Lady Panthers were able to keep the Lady Monarchs at bay with a three or four point lead for the next 10 points before Saint Jo started to pull away. Up 18-12, the Lady Panthers won another five-point exchange 4-1 to extend their lead by double-digits and everyone knew it was close to over.
Saint Jo easily closed the set with little drama 25-14, winning the match 3-1.
Bowie
The Bowie Lady Rabbits lost a tough district match at Iowa Park on Tuesday night.
The Lady Hawks won 3-1 as the Lady Rabbits were able to win a close third set to keep the match alive and give them hope of coming back.
Bowie was coming into the match after starting district playing the defending district champs Henrietta at home. The Lady Rabbits were not able to come through against the Lady Cats and they were hoping to get their first district win on the road.
From the first point of the match, Bowie was tested when outside hitter Madison Fulmer went down with a knee injury during a rally that sidelined her for the match.
It was a competitive first set, but ultimately it was Iowa Park that pulled away as it wore on, winning 25-17 to take the early lead.
It felt worse when in set two the Lady Hawks started out on a roll that Bowie just could not recover from. Iowa Park won set two by a big margin 25-10 and looked like it was going to take the match easily.
The Lady Rabbits rallied back and in set three competed like they knew they could against the Lady Hawks. It was point-to-point throughout and neither team could get much of a lead. Down to the wire, it was Bowie who came through, winning 25-22 to keep the match alive.
The Lady Rabbits had some hope, with the route ahead for a comeback now set and the team believing they could do it.
Unfortunately in set four, Bowie just could not find its rhythm to stay with Iowa Park in the final stretch of the set. The Lady Hawks were able to close out the set, winning it 25-18 and the match 3-1.
Nocona
The Nocona Lady Indians lost a tough match on Tuesday at 5A Wichita Falls Memorial.
The Lady Mavericks won in straight sets 3-0 against the Lady Indians as they struggled to hang with the bigger school.
The set scores were 25-15, 25-15 and 25-12 in a game Nocona would most like to put behind itself. Coach Kara Lucherk did not think her team played its best.
“I thought we struggled with what the other team was able to do offensively from the first few touches,” Lucherk said. “We could never pull ourselves out of the hole mentally to get much going on our side of the net.”
Forestburg
The Forestburg Lady Horns picked up a big five-set win at home against Perrin-Whitt on Tuesday night.
The Lady Horns escaped near disaster, holding off the Lady Pirates’ furious comeback attempt to win 3-2.
Forestburg was coming off its toughest tournament of the season in Saint Jo, rallying during bracket play to take home some hardware in the consolation side.
The start of the match did not go well for the Lady Horns. Perrin-Whitt got out to an 11-4 lead and was playing well. Forestburg was able to swing things around dramatically, closing on a 21-4 run to win the set 25-18.
The second set was one of the closest of the match. In the end, the Lady Horns were able to execute in the end game to win it 25-20 and take a 2-0 lead.
Then the Lady Pirates started to up their intensity and Forestburg just could not match it. Perrin-Whitt won sets three and four by the one-sided score 25-11 to tie the match up at 2-2 with all the momentum in the world on its side.
Set five exists in its own universe, not always swayed by two sets worth of one-sided play from one team now that the end of the match is near for both sides.
It held true on Tuesday night as the Lady Horns were able to shake off its fog from the previous two sets and play the most competitive stretch of the entire match from beginning to end. Like it was in set two, it was Forestburg that held its poise and won the close set 15-12 to seal its victory it almost let slip away.
Bellevue
The Bellevue Lady Eagles lost a tough match at Olney on Tuesday night.
The Lady Cubs won 3-1 against the Lady Eagles.
Bellevue was coming off the Saint Jo tournament that showed some promising results after getting second in the silver bracket.
The Lady Eagles started off the match well, winning 25-18 to take the early lead. Unfortunately, Olney was able to rally and win the next three competitive sets 25-19, 25-17 and 25-22 to take the victory.
Missing scores
The Bowie News did not receive scores from Prairie Valley’s match on Tuesday. Gold-Burg did not play earlier in the week.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News. To see photos from the Saint Jo game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6868965&T=1
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.
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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