|
Dawson rolls to playoff victory
Published November 4, 2009
SUGAR LAND — It wasn’t a bad way to break into the Region III Class 4A volleyball playoffs for first-timer Pearland Dawson as the Lady Eagles eliminated the El Campo Lady Ricebirds 20-25, 25-14, 25-19, 25-17 on Tuesday at Wheeler Fieldhouse.
After Grace Underwood’s tip over the El Campo defense clinched the match for Dawson, the celebration started for the third-year program.
“It was hard, it was tough and we had to fight point for point,” Pearland Dawson coach Lori McLaughlin said. “We were just trying to take it one point at a time.”
Dawson will move on to face Houston Washington in the area round with time, place and date still undetermined.
The Lady Eagles, who improved to 24-18 on the year, were in a tussle from the start of the match with their District 23-4A opponents.
After taking a three-point lead in the opening game, 8-5, the Lady Ricebirds came right back. With the teams knotted at 13, El Campo finally took its first lead of the game on the next point and didn’t look back.
With thundering shots from Ebonnee Spencer and Candace Supak, the Lady Ricebirds were a bit quicker to the ball than the Lady Eagles — and it showed as setter Tracy Gerla made a one-handed stab at a ball almost out of bounds in the final point. Gerla’s return to the Dawson side was untouched as El Campo took a 1-0 game lead.
“I think we had the first set jitters,” McLaughlin said. “I told them to take a deepbreath and we have to start over. We have to get resituated and get our confidence back up.”
And boy did the Lady Eagles do just that, as they ran out to a quick 3-0 lead in the second game behind a kill from Camryn Kazmierski and a tip over by Grace Underwood. Though El Campo fought back, Kazmierski broke a 6-6 tie with a shot off the Ricebird defense.
From that point on, it was all Dawson. Grace Underwood continued her patented work at the net with quick kills and tip-overs while Kazmierski, along with Mary Johnston, came through from the outside.
Their biggest lead in the game was an 11-point bulge, 21-10, and it was Johnston who tied the match with a hard shot off the El Campo defense.
There were six ties in the first 27 points of the third game as the teams traded the lead back and forth.
It was a serve by Katie Haynie that gave Pearland the lead for good at 14-13. With Kazmierski swinging away from the outside, Grace Underwood and sister Olivia Underwood took care of the net.
The Lady Eagles maintained a four- to five-point cushion the rest of the way until Grace Underwood tipped a ball to an open spot to give Dawson a 2-1 game edge.
“We tried to take it point by point and take control,” McLaughlin said. “I think what swung this match was our intensity and finally doing our jobs. Our play at the net was big for us tonight and we started picking up the tips that were killing us in the first game.”
Dawson again bolted out to a 17-9 lead in the third game as El Campo made a couple of late runs but the Lady Eagles just had to big of a lead on them. Every time the Lady Ricebirds seemed like they had something going they would hit a net serve or a shot that was too long or too wide.
Kazmierski finished with nine kills as Haynie had 15 assists and Olivia Underwood had 14. Danielle Sullivan also had 16 digs for Dawson.
Supak led El Campo with nine kills as it finished the year 19-14.
Joel Luna is the sports editor for The Facts. Contact him at 979 237-0160.
Share |
Save |
Mail |
Print
|
|
|
 |
|
Click for all
Top Ads listing
|
