Lady Dawgs upset district leading Pantherettes 3-1; look to avenge second loss tonight vs Belton

By TJ MAXWELL

Copperas Cove Leader-Press

While the Copperas Cove football team was preparing to take on the Midway Panthers on the gridiron, the Lady Dawgs were taking down the District 12-6A frontrunner Pantherettes at Bulldawg Gymnasium.

The Pantherettes, previously undefeated in district play, took the first set in Friday’s clash with a score of 23-25, but it would be all Lady Dawgs after that as Cove swept the final three sets 25-22, 25-21 and 25-15 for the 3-1 win.

Senior Janice Fa’aola pushed her season kill total to 382 with her game-high 24 kills against the Pantherettes while senior Leah Powel added 13 kills to bring her team-high total to 386 kills on the year. 

Setting up the offense was senior Sam Ingram with 31 assists. That brings her season total to 507 while junior Emily Vanderpoel added 12 assists to her team-high total of 550.

Leading the back-row defense was sophomore Emma Wasiak with 33 digs, followed by Powell (21), Fa’aola (15 and Ingram (11). Powell leads the team in digs with 363 with Wasiak (360), Fa’aola (333) and Ingram (218) rounding out the top four. 

Sophomore Kyra Gaston had eight of the team’s 23 blocks in the win. The brings her total to 121 on the year to lead the team. 

Rice added seven blocks followed by Powell (6) and Ingram (5) to lead the way. Rice is second on the team in total blocks with 116 followed by Powell (71) and Ingram (53).

Fa’aola leads the Lady Dawgs in aces with 43 with Ingram following with 32.

The Lady Dawgs look to avenge their second district loss against Belton when the Lady Tigers come to town tonight. 

Cove suffered a five-set loss to the Lady Tigers when the two teams met up on Sept. 13 in Belton.

The Lady Tigers took the first two games 20-25 and 22-25 before the Lady Dawgs answered with a 25-18 win in set three and a 25-20 win in set four to knot the match at two sets each but the Tigers ran away with the final set 15-3 for the upset.

“When we lost earlier in the season to Belton, we came in on Saturday and we ran and we worked hard,” said Copperas Cove head volleyball coach Cari Lowery. “You want to be mad at them, but every single one of them came in and said, ‘thanks for working us so hard coach Lowery because that’s going to make us better.’ They want to work hard. They want to get better. They know when they’re not playing how they’re supposed to be playing. They know what they’re capable of because they work hard every single day. When they don’t perform like they are supposed to, they know it. I don’t have to say anything. Not that I don’t, but I don’t need to.”

A win by Cove (10-2) would provide a two-game cushion over Belton (9-2) for that second seed and keep the Lady Dawgs in striking distance of the Pantherettes with three district games remaining for Cove (vs. Killen, at Temple and at Ellison) and five left for Midway (at Killeen, vs Heights, vs Ellison, at Belton and at Waco).