Sweeping Up

By TJ MAXWELL

‘Moments of greatness’ is a phrase Copperas Cove head volleyball coach Cari Lowery often uses to describe her team’s play. That was the case in Tuesday’s District 12-6A opening sweep of the Ellison Lady Eagles.

The Lady Dawgs showed flashes of what briefly earned them a spot in the Texas Girls Coaches Association’s Class 6A Top 20 in their 25-13, 25-21, 25-17 win over the Ellison Lady Eagles and first-year head coach Stacy Stolley. They also made some mistakes that coach Lowery wants cleaned up. The Lady Dawgs missed nine serves in the contest.

“Moments of greatness and then a couple little miscues,” said Lowery. “But, I thought we played well – especially in game one.

“We missed far too many serves. We don’t miss serves like that and that was unacceptable so we will be addressing that tomorrow, but I’m proud of them – 1-0.”

Even with the serving miscues, the Lady Dawgs easily dispatched the Lady Eagles to 1-0 in District 12-6A and 23-9 overall.

Senior Raeven Dickerson had a game-high 11 kills and a second-best three blocks to lead the Lady Dawgs.

“Raeven hasn’t scratched the surface of what she’s capable of,” said Lowery. “She’s a jumper, she’s smart and she has a really fast arm swing.”

“I feel like I could have done better,” said Dickerson. But, I played to the best of my ability and I just believed in my team.”

Dickerson credits her success in the game to her teammates and their ability to mix things up offensively – especially with the dual setter roles of junior Kiarrah Carlisle, who had a game-high 20 assists, and senior Katy Ranes’ 18 dimes. Ranes also chipped in five kills, one of five Lady Dawgs to get at least five in the quick three-setter.

“They move the ball around really good,” Dickerson said of her setters. “And, we have really good hitters everywhere so we have threats all over the court.”

Always looking to perfect the puzzle, Lowery tweaked her defense a bit, giving senior Ale Ross a little more time on back row defense.

“We’re still looking for the missing piece to the puzzle,” said Lowery. “There’s one little piece of this puzzle missing and I’m going to find it or I’m going to build it. It’s just the consistency, but I was pleased for the most part of how Ale played tonight and the position I put her in.”

Cove took advantage of some early Ellison miscues to build a quick 6-2 lead and they put together a strong offensive output to stretch that lead to a 16-4 lead. Two kills and a dump by Dickerson on a pair of assists by Ranes and an ace by Carlisle led the way.

Ellison (16-14, 0-2 in District 12-6A) fought to stay in the set with kills by Breonna Flemming, Shauntia Landrum and Kieran Means that cut the Cove lead to 11, 23-12, but kills by Dickerson and junior middle blocker Chyanne Chapman closed out the set, respectively.

Ellison took an early lead in the second set but kills by senior Jennifer Eubanks, Dickerson and junior Brianna Acker and a block by Chapman pushed the Dawgs to a 6-4 lead.

The teams tied five more times until the Lady Eagles put enough offense together to take a 19-17 lead. Kills by Melissa Ruiz and Jannia Price led the Eagle effort.

Coach Lowery took her second quick timeout to refocus her squad.

“We just talked about playing our game and not getting sucked into playing somebody else’s game,” she said. “You start playing somebody else’s game they’re going to beat you at it, because that’s what they do. We have to do what we do and we did what we do.”

Her team responded.

Another block by Chapman jumpstarted a 7-2 run to close out the set 25-21. Kills by Acker, Chapman, Ranes and Eubanks on five Carlisle assists accounted for the Cove offense.

Ellison charged again in the third set with solid attacks from Price, Simone Thomas and Alexandria Jones, but Cove had answers each time. 

After ties at 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 8, the Lady Dawgs ripped off a 12-3 run to take over the set and match at 20-11. Kills by senior Mega Diaz and Dickerson helped fuel the run.

A kill by Eubanks on the Carlisle assist and a block by Diaz pushed the Cove lead to 23-13 and, after a pair of kills by Ellison’s Fleming temporarily halted the inevitable, a Diaz kill and dime by Carlisle put the match away.

“I told them today, ‘We’re not as good as we’re going to be yet,’” said Lowery. “That’s the good news. Even if we’re winning or making mistakes, we’re not as good as we’re going to be yet. We still are going to keep improving and that’s where we want to be.”

Lowery was impressed by the Lady Eagles as well.

“I didn’t know exactly what to expect from Ellison because they’ve got the new coach and you never know how a team is going to respond to a new coach,” she said. “They could go crazy and play out of their mind and they did. They played great.”

Dickerson was proud of how her team bounced back from their loss to Robinson on Saturday and feels like, if they play their game, they’ll be just fine when the regular season closes.

“We’re going to win some and lose some,” she said. But, as long as we keep playing up to our potential where we know we can play, we’re going to finish as district champs.”

The Lady Dawgs will get back after it on Friday when they host the Shoemaker Lady Grey Wolves and coach Lowery needs her team to stay focused.

“They’re all important,” Lowery said about district wins. “There are no taking nights off on any of them. The Killeen school district has athletes. They’ve got athletes like crazy and they jump.”