No. 14 LDVB gets help to regain top spot in 12-6A
By TJ MAXWELL
Cove Leader-Press
The no. 14 ranked Copperas Cove Lady Dawgs are back in their usual spot atop the district after a sweep of Temple and an upset of the first-place Midway Pantherettes by the Belton Lady Tigers.
Cove easily took care of business with a 3-0 sweep of Temple on the road to begin the second round of District 12-6A play. The Lady Dawgs won 25-14, 25-12, 25-13 to improve to 33-2 overall and 8-1 in district play.
Meanwhile, down the Highway 14/U.S. 190 corridor at Tiger Gym in Belton, the Lady Tigers (6-3 in District 12-6A) upset Midway (8-1) in a five-set marathon match 25-20, 21-25, 20-25, 25-23, 15-6 to put the Lady Dawgs back in the driver’s seat for the top spot in the district.
The win firmly planted Belton in that fourth and final playoff spot with Cove and Midway locked in a tie at 8-1 atop the district and Ellison holding the third spot at 6-2.
Junior Janice Fa’aola led Cove’s offensive attack with 12 kills and a .647 hitting percentage in the win over Temple. She had just one hitting error in 17 attempts.
Senior Aidan Chace also had a solid night hitting with nine kills and a .421 hitting percentage. She also had just one error in 19 attempts.
Senior Kamryn Ash improved her team-high assists to 718 on the year with 28 on Tuesday. Chace chipped in another 10 assists.
Defensively, junior Leah Powell and senior Kristen Wasiak split the back-row defensive duties with 13 digs apiece while Chace added eight and senior Aviyon Wilborn followed with six.
Senior Jada Close led the front-row defense with six blocks to move her season total to 133 while Chace added four and senior Christina Pettigrew added three more to her team-high 144 blocks.
Wilborn had eight aces in the service game while Chace chipped in two more. Wilborn has 39 aces on the year.
Juliana Torres had seven kills to lead the Tem-Cats (18-18, 4-5) while Autumn Dowell added six.
Kelsey Surovik and Emily Holder led the Belton Lady Tigers in their upset of Midway. Surovik had 13 kills and five blocks while Holder had 26 assists, 18 digs nine kills and four aces in the win. Abbey Karcher chipped in 10 kills and four blocks.
The Lady Dawgs look to hold on to that top spot when they travel to Ellison to face the Lady Eagles tonight with a 5:30 p.m. first serve.
The Lady Tigers host the Shoemaker Lady Grey Wolves (4-5) tonight beginning at 5:30 p.m.