‘District Champs!’
Fri, 2015-10-30 05:00
News Staff
Lady Dawgs sweep Belton for 12-6A cochampionship
By TJ MAXWELL
BELTON -- The Copperas Cove Lady Dawgs had not dropped a set since their epic battle with Midway on October 16 that placed them in the driver’s seat for their third district crown in four years.
Trailing 24-21 in the third set against the Lady Tigers in Belton it looked like that streak might end but five-consecutive points by the Lady Dawgs, punctuated by a termination block and a kill by junior Chyanne Chapman, broke a 24-24 tie and secured a share of the District 12-6A title. The Lady Dawgs swept Belton 3-0 (25-17, 25-14, 26-24) to finish the regular season 33-10 overall 11-1 in district action.
“It feels amazing,” said senior Raeven Dickerson. “I knew we could do it all along. We just had to work to get there and we got there - District Champions.”
Head coach Cari Lowery has been a bit on edge down the stretch as sometimes teams let up after a big win and fall in a contest they should win or get nervous and just don’t play their game.
“(I was) not really worried, but you want it to be what it should be for those girls that are working so hard,” said Lowery. “Tonight, for instance, we played a little nervous because this one was big no matter how you try to play like it’s not. So, we have to not be nervous. We came back from a big hole in game three with everything against us, basically.”
Belton’s third set charge was aided by four net violations and a two-touch called on Cove that pushed Belton out front 9-4.
The Lady Dawgs kept chipping away at the Lady Tigers’ lead. A 5-1 Lady Dawgs’ run, highlighted by a pair of hard kills by senior Raeven Dickerson and junior Brianna Acker, knotted the game at 16-all.
After five more ties in the set, big shots by Belton’s Allison Waits and Elicia Jackson allowed the Lady Tigers to pull ahead 24-21 before the championship-clinching rally by the Lady Dawgs closed the set and match.
“When I saw we were behind, I knew we had to step it up and play our game that we’re capable of playing, talk to each other and get each other excited,” said Dickerson. “Whenever we do that, we kill teams.”
A pumped up Lady Tigers’ squad took a 4-2 lead in the first set but a kill by Dickerson and an ace by Eubanks snatched the momentum to start a 10-1 run for Cove. Three kills by Acker and a block for a kill by Chapman pushed Cove to a 12-5 lead.
Cove extended that lead to 12, 20-8, with a 4-0 run. Two kills and a termination block by Dickerson and a block for a kill by senior Megan Diaz accounted for the surge.
Belton pushed back within five with points by Brey York and Waits but a kills by Dickerson put Cove up 23-17 and a block by the duo of Acker and Chapman iced the game 25-17.
The Lady Dawgs came out firing on all cylinders offensively in the second game with some extra punch in the right arm of the Dickerson. The senior captain was violent at the point of attack, hammering down several of her game-high 14 kills with ferocity.
“I was really fired up,” said Dickerson. “We wanted this so bad and we were going to fight every second for it. We knew it wouldn’t be easy and we had to fight the whole game and that’s what we did. We took care of business.”
That business earned the Lady Dawgs a No. 1 seed in the district after winning the coin toss against Waco Midway. They will face the Lakeview Centennial Lady Patriots in the bidistrict round of the playoffs set for 7 p.m. Monday at Glen Rose High School in Glen Rose. Read the playoff preview on page 1B of today’s paper.
Cove shot out to a 10-4 lead to open the match. Kills by senior kill leaders Dickerson and Eubanks got it started and two termination blocks and a kill by Chapman pushed the Lady Dawgs out to a 7-2 lead.
Belton charged back within two with a kill by Waits and an ace by libero Anna Becker.
The Lady Dawgs then pulled away with a 15-6 run to close the set. Two kills by Dickerson and one by Acker, all off the set of senior Katy Ranes, and an ace by Eubanks helped push the Cove lead to nine, 22-13. A block by Chapman and a kill by Acker on a set by junior Kiarrah Carlisle helped close the set.
A lot of the points Belton were on Cove defensive miscues, but Lowery credits that to the tips and soft roll shots that caught the defense off guard.
“Belton is a tip team,” said Lowery. “They do a lot of roll shot and tips and it does kind of take you out of your system. If you watched the freshman (junior varsity) teams, they just tipped and roll shot all night long. We knew that coming in and that will be good for us down the road because we had to make some adjustments of what we were doing defensively. Our defensive hiccups are communication hiccups, so that’s easily fixed.”