Lady Dawgs Volleyball devour Wildcats

By SEAN HANEY

Cove Leader-Press

Last Friday night, the Lady Dawgs lost to Weiss along with the Dawgs football team. So, on Tuesday night the Lady Dawgs took their frustration out and swept Temple in three sets on Senior and Parents’ night.

“If you can learn from a loss and get better from it, then it was a loss that we needed to have at the time,” Coach Christy Thompson said on how she was able to turn last week’s loss into fuel to win on Tuesday night.

“I just tried to train them that we’ve got to go one game at a time.”

So once that game was over, and they talked about stats and what they needed to work on to be a better team, that’s when the Lady Dawgs knew that they had to let that one go and move on to what’s coming next, Thompson added.

“Winning this match meant everything to me,” Senior Leila Cooks said with excitement on her face. “This was one of our last home game this year, so just getting to play with everyone before we leave was really important to me. (Last week’s loss) motivated me to play harder, push my teammates, and never give up on any play.”

“It meant a lot winning this match because we’ve been playing for a long time with this team,” Fellow senior Jahki Smith said. “With this being one of our final home games and playing with younger girls meant a lot to me because we’re about to leave them and so I just felt really happy during the moment. The loss last week motivated me to keep winning because we want to keep our spots to get to playoffs. We want to keep playing hard and keep playing up so we can beat all these other teams.”

One of the loudest sections on the court on Tuesday night was by far the student section which made an impact on the game.

“It affected a lot because having students to actually cheer us on it makes us have more energy on the court,” Smith said about the booming student section. “It made us talk to each other more and it just gets us through the game quicker and makes the game even more fun.”

She may not be a senior, but Chloe Tuiasosopo is a force to be reckoned with, as she holds the top of the leader board in the state of Texas in blocks this season with 179.

With the season coming to an end soon, Coach Thompson said that there’s one message she wants everyone to know about the Lady Dawgs.

“I just want people to know that our Lady Dawg volleyball players play hard, and they play with grit, and they play together as a team trying to uphold the LDVB (Lady Dawg Volleyball) legacy.”

The Lady Dawgs play their final home game of the season Friday night against Midway.