Lowery picks up 800th win at Jason Landers Invitational

By TJ MAXWELL
Cove Leader-Press

AUSTIN – The Copperas Cove Lady Dawgs kicked off the 2019 season at the annual Austin ISD Jason Landers Tournament where they finished 4-4 in the three-day, 48-team battle royal.
The Lady Dawgs held their own through the first two days of competition with a 4-2 record with their only losses coming against this year’s runners up El Paso and last year’s runners up Vista Ridge.
Cove opened the tournament with a 25-15, 25-16 in over Conroe and a 25-7, 25-8 win over Northeast before suffering their first loss of the tournament in a 25-17, 27-25 loss to El Paso to close out day one. 
Senior Leah Powell led the Lady Dawgs against Conroe with 12 kills, two blocks and 10 digs while senior Sam Ingram led with 21 assists. Senior N’kya Smith also had 10 digs.
Against Northeast, senior Janice Fa’aola led in kills with five while Smith notched six aces to lead the category. Senior Jaela Rice led in blocks with two while Ingram led in assists with 10 and Smith led in digs with four. 
Powell had seven kills to lead the offense against Class 5A no. 6 (TGCA) El Paso while Rice led in blocks (4) and Ingram led in assists (12) and digs (13). 
The Lady Dawgs got back into the win column to open day two with a 25-18, 23-25, 25-23 win over Georgetown Eastview.
Powell had 14 kills while Fa’aola notched eight kills to lead the offense. Rice again led in blocks with four while Sam Ingram and junior Emily Vanderpoel led in assists with 14 and 13, respectively. Fa’aola led in digs with 15 followed by sophomore Emma Wasiak with 13. 
The Lady Dawg then suffered their second loss of the tournament to Vista Ridge, who they beat in last year’s final for the title. However, Vista Ridge would come out on top in this battle 25-17, 25-20.
Fa’aola had eight kills to lead the Lady Dawgs while Rice led with two blocks, Vanderpoel led with eight assists and Wasiak led with 14 digs. 
The Lady Dawgs closed out the day with a 25-13, 25-13 win over Waco Robinson to earn a spot in the silver bracket championships and earned Lowery her 800th career win in the process. 
Fa’aola and Powell led in kills with eight and seven, respectively, while Vanderpoel led in assists with 14. Rice and Ingram finish with nine digs each to lead the defense.
Unfortunately for the Lady Dawgs, they came up against Austin High and Austin Anderson on day three to finish the tournament 4-4. 
The Lady Dawgs took set one against Austin 30-29 before falling in the final two sets 25-14, 25-21 to move to 4-3 to open Saturday play. 
The Lady Dawgs then lost two close sets to Anderson 30-28, 28-26 to close out the tournament.
No statistics were available for Saturday’s games as of press time.
Eaton High finished undefeated 9-0 to take home the tournament title. They won 18 of 19 matches on the way. 
Cove finished 12th out of 48 teams in the tournament. Their four losses came against teams that were a combined 26-7 in the tournament.
The Lady Dawgs returned home last night where they gave Georgetown Eastview a chance at revenge (results not available at press time). The Lady Dawgs return to Bulldawgs Gymnasium tonight where they host Class 4A Lorena.