Nocona vs Saint Jo
The Nocona Lady Indians traveled to down the road to beat Saint Jo on Friday night.
The Lady Indians won 3-1 as the two most recently successful volleyball programs in the county faced off for the first time in years.
Nocona was coming into the match following several tough losses against bigger schools while still missing its top outside hitter Meg Meekins with injury.
Saint Jo was coming off a successful run at its tournament the previous week and was playing well against schools both big and its own size.
With both teams making it all the way to the regional finals last year and each having good bet aspirations of making a deep playoff run this year, it was a good matchup for both programs that had been building towards this game for the past several seasons.
While Lady Indians were not at full strength and still has a couple younger players it is counting on at setter, the Lady Panthers had a senior led group that wanted to show it could play with and maybe beat the big school down the road.
The first set saw Nocona get off to a good start and Saint Jo could never catch back up. Up 10-5, the Lady Indians did not allow the Lady Panthers to get any closer and eventually closed the set well, winning 25-16.
The second set proved to be the most competitive one of the match from start to finish. The biggest lead any team ever got was two points at any time as it went down to the wire.
In the end, it was Nocona that came out on top 27-25. Up 2-0, the Lady Indians were feeling confident they were coming in and showing the difference between what a top team at 2A plays like compared to a 1A team.
Still, Saint Jo was not going to give up. The Lady Panthers started off set three well and seemed to catch Nocona lacking. Up 9-6, Saint Jo went on a 8-2 run to break the set open. The Lady Panthers won easily 25-15 to cut the lead to 2-1 and show the Lady Indians they would not be able to coast to a victory.
Not wanting to give Saint Jo any more hope of possibly turning this match around and forcing a fifth set, Nocona had to shake off the bad play from the third set and come in focused in set four.
The Lady Indians established control early up 12-8 and then 21-14. Saint Jo made a last gasp effort that made up a lot of the comfortable lead for Nocona in the final points, but in the end the Lady Indians won 25-22 to be victorious 3-1.

Bowie
The Bowie Lady Rabbits are still looking for their first district win after losing at City View on Friday.
The Lady Mustangs won 3-1 against the Lady Rabbits.
Bowie came into the match 0-2 in district after losing to Henrietta and Iowa Park.
The first set proved to be the most competitive of the match and could have gone either way. In extra points, City View came through winning 28-26 to go up 1-0.
This was a tough start as the Lady Mustangs took that momentum into set two and won far easier 25-16 to go up 2-0.
With their backs against the wall, the Lady Rabbits fought back and played the third set well, winning 25-16 to continue the match and give Bowie a chance for a comeback.
Unfortunately, the fourth set saw City View start off well and the Lady Rabbits just could not make up enough of the difference. The Lady Mustangs took the set 25-19 and the match 3-1.

Forestburg
The Forestburg Lady Horns won their final non-district match on Friday at Vernon Northside easily.
The Lady Horns beat the Lady Indians in straight sets 3-0 to head into district on a positive note.
Forestburg was able to take a part Northside relatively easily with the set scores being 25-16, 25-21 and 25-7.
Brenna Briles led the team with 16 kills while also getting 11 assists, 10 digs and five service aces.
Logan Ladewig led the team with 12 assists while totaling 12 kills and also getting five aces.

Bellevue
The Bellevue Lady Eagles lost a tough match at Petrolia on Friday night.
The 2A Lady Pirates won in straight sets against the Lady Eagles.
Bellevue was coming into the match following a difficult loss against Olney earlier in the week. Playing against an even better team meant the margin for error was slimmer.
Early on, the Lady Eagles struggled in the serve-receive part of the match which hamstrung the team from consistently being able to create offense. As the match went along Bellevue got better, but unfortunately it was not enough for the team to take a set.
Petrolia won with the set scores being 25-15, 25-18 and 25-22.

Missing scores
The Bowie News did not receive scores from Gold-Burg and Prairie Valley’s matches from Friday.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News. For pictures from the Saint Jo vs Nocona game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6869053&T=1