NO. 1 WITH A BULLET
Fri, 2016-10-21 05:00
News Staff
Short-handed Lady Dawgs fall to nation’s no. 1 team Midway Pantherettes
By TJ MAXWELL
Cove Leader-Press
Copperas Cove head coach Cari Lowery knew a lot of things would need to go her way to take down the Goliaths of the volleyball world when they hosted the no. 1 team in the nation, Waco Midway, on Tuesday.
That feat became even more daunting with Aidan Chace, leading hitter and all-around contributor for the Dawgs, sidelined with a knee injury.
“We’re just limping right now a little bit because we’re injured,” said Lowery. “At one point, I had two sophomores and freshman on the floor and we’re playing a team that is no. 1 in the state.
“I put a setter (Antanese Kinard) in tonight that has not been on the floor since August. We just tried everything. My freshman (Leah Powell) stepped in and got some kills. The good news is I have three sophomores and a freshman that have some varsity experience. Down the road, maybe not this year, but in the future that’s good news for us.”
Lowery also admits that, even in a perfect world, her may not have been able to compete with the No. 1 team in the state according to the Texas Girls’ Coaches Association and the no. 1 in the nation in the USA TODAY Sports/American Volleyball Coaches Association Super 25 rankings.
“We potentially could play the very best we could possibly play and be completely healthy and still not beat Midway this year,” she said. “We’re not that team this year and they are. That’s just the way it goes. You don’t want to kill your JV just to score a few more points. We hope we get Aidan back, but even if we do, she won’t have the mobility she’s had and I may not have her in the same position because of that. She may not be able to do all that lateral movement and stop-start stuff.”
Like in their first showdown, the Pantherettes dominated the first and second games. Cove, however, showed grit and determination in set three and held the powerful Midway squad at bay for half of the game until a 5-0 spurt, highlighted by kills from seniors Allye Beth Deaton and Samantha Sanders, kick started an 11-4 Midway run to give the Pantherettes control again.
Kills by junior Talia Kinslow and senior Brianna Acker and a block by senior Zari Chipman temporarily gave the Lady Dawgs a reprieve from the powerful Pantherettes but a dump to the empty spot in the Cove defense closed out the set 25-18 and the sweep for Midway to lock up the District 8-6A crown.
“I’m proud of how we finished,” said Lowery. “The fact that we didn’t just lay down and curl up is big. That last game, we were in it with them.
“I thought we had some great defensive digs tonight. If you can dig a team like that, you can dig anything. We can play with anybody. In game three we played with them. We were in the game, we just didn’t have any consistent offense.”
Lowery was proud of her squad’s back row defense but knows the offense lacks consistency.
“That’s what I told them in the dressing room,” she said, “‘We’re getting digs and we’re giving you the opportunity to get a kill and we are whaling balls to the wall. You can only wear your defense out so long. We were just not consistent offensively tonight at all.”
The Lady Dawgs (28-13, 8-2) kept it close early in the first set with kills by Kinslow and Acker leading the way to an 8-5 Midway advantage before the Pantherettes (40-2, 11-0) shot out on a 17-1 run to close the set 25-6.
Cove again kept close in the early goings on set two, winning a long rally and getting a kill from Kinslow for a 10-5 Midway lead. Midway again took over with a 15-5 run to win 25-10 and take a 2-0 lead.
Leading the defensive charge was senior Madison Wasiak. She only technically had a team-high 18 digs in the match, but that didn’t tell the whole story of her effort against the hitting prowess of Midway.
“I thought she did a great job,” said Lowery. “Because we’re not big, we’re not typically a great terminating blocking team so we have to have great defense and we’ve had great defense over the years. She stepped up and got some great digs.”
Wasiak also had a team-high 23 receives of serve.
Chipman led the defense at the net for Cove with four blocks. Acker and Kinslow each had five kills to lead the Lady Dawgs and senior Kiarrah Carlisle had nine assists.
Deaton’s 13 kills and Sanders nine led Midway’s offense.
Although Lowery would have loved to knock off the No. 1 team, the real goal is to just keep getting better and with four underclassmen seeing action, the future looks bright.
“I told them, ‘you can be pitiful or you can be powerful and we’re going to be powerful,’” she said. “We’re going to keep practicing and keep working on what we need to work on.”
The newly tweaked rotation will take some time to iron out and time is not a luxury coach Lowery has with a matchup against the district’s third-place team Harker Heights coming to town tonight and the playoffs right around the corner.
“We will find that mesh again – whatever it may be,” she said. “We just have to find it a little bit quicker.
“I just want us to get better every time we step on the court. We need to keep learning, keep being coachable. We just have got to keep playing as long as we can and that will pay off for us down the road.”