Cove Volleyball’s Chace named MVP to highlight FCA Victory Bowl Week
By TJ MAXWELL
Cove Leader-Press
The colors were all wrong as the normally Blue and Gold-clad Copperas Cove Lady Dawgs Aidan Chace and Kamryn Ash, along with Lady Dawgs’ head coach Cari Lowery, led the Red Team to a 3-0 sweep over the Blue Team at the annual Fellowship of Christian Athletes Victory Bowl Volleyball game Saturday afternoon in Waco.
Angelo State-bound Aidan Chace represented her team to the best of her ability as she brought home the MVP trophy after leading her Red squad to a 3-0 sweep (25-19, 25-21, 25-20). Even more special was getting to share her final high school game with Ash and Lowery.
“It felt great,” Chace said of the experience. “This is my last match of my high school career and having coach Lowery as my coach and playing with Kamryn felt great. It was really exciting and something I’ll remember forever.”
The connection between Ash and Chace that Cove fans have become accustomed to was on display in grand fashion during the sweep. The two hooked up for kills eight times during the match, including two in a row that gave the Red Team back the lead in the third set.
Chace ended the match with 14 kills, five assist and five blocks for the MVP crown. Ash finished with 12 assists and an ace.
“It feels good to win,” said Ash. “A lot of people were cheering for the Blue Team. I got to play with all these amazing girls and they’re all my friends now. I’m just really happy that we won, and we got to play together.”
The rest of Victory Bowl Week meant even more.
“It means a lot,” said Ash. “This whole week has been about God and my faith. “We did some community service at the Boys and Girls Club and we impacted their lives so much and it just means so much that we’re even given the ability to do that.”
Lowery acknowledged that having her two super stars helped make her job easier.
“You could see Copperas Cove volleyball out there playing,” said Lowery. “They raised the level of play. Kamryn is such a good, smooth, aggressive setter. She makes the hitters around her better.
“I could coach Aidan and Kamryn for the rest of my life.”
Lowery was really impressed with the way the whole team came together in such a short time.
“It’s exciting to get to see the best of the area play together,” she said. “They had like three practices to come together and I’m throwing new stuff at them and they just stepped up and did it.”
The experience meant a lot to Chace as well.
“It means everything to me” she said. “Being here at FCA and accepting God into my heart is really special to me. It has opened my eyes with a lot of team bonding and community service.
“Playing with girls I’ve never met before was also really cool. We only had like three of four days of practice, but we came out here and played like we’ve known each other for years. It was really special and having coach Lowery one last time is something I’ll never forget.”
The FCA Victory Bowl Week began with community service and fellowship throughout the week and culminated in four games over a two-day period that began with Friday’s Baseball and Softball games held at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and ended with Saturday night’s Football game at the Waco ISD Football Stadium.
Cove’s Colby Jost and Michael Goudeau helped the Red Team jump out to a 2-0 lead in the baseball game to start the weekend’s festivities before the Blue Team rallied with six unanswered runs to take a 6-2 lead on their way to the 9-4 final score.
Cove’s Jayda Carter also helped the Red Team take an early lead over the Blue Team with a 10-1 score midway through the nine-inning contest but the Blue Team roared back, outscoring the Red Team 14-4 over the next four innings to make it a 15-14 score in the bottom of the ninth.
After the Blue Team pulled within three, 10-7, an RBI single by Carter scored Belton’s Avery Drake for the 12-7 Red Team lead.
After the Blue Team scored four runs in the fifth and four more in the eighth to take a 15-14 lead, Belton’s Madison Ward connected with an RBI single for the final 15-15 score.
In Saturday night’s Victory Bowl Football Game, the Blue Team struck first on a 93-yard touchdown pass from Teague quarterback Zack Zatterwhite to Cameron Yoe’s Kadrian Hammond for a touchdown and 7-0 Blue lead.
The Red Team knotted the game at 7-7 on a 16-yard pass from Shoemaker’s Mark Walker to a wide-open Denver Holman of Belton in the corner of the end zone.
Belton’s other wideout Anthony Brown got in on the action with a 12-yard touchdown pass from Walker for a 14-7 Red lead.
Zatterwhite found Blooming Grove’s Stephen Carroll for another long touchdown pass – this one for 52 yards – to tie the game at 14-all.
The Red Team the finished the game off with a 32-yard field goal with two seconds left to lift the Red Team over the Blue 17-14.
Copperas Cove’s lone player, Jaylan Brown, had several blocks as a tight end on offense and a sack on defense. Cove’s Trevor Troy and Tommy Connell were unable to play.