Lady Lions Fall in Area Championship
Leon Sweeps Lovelady 27-25, 25-6, 25-21
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
MADISONVILLE- The Lovelady Lady Lions hit the road to Madisonville on Thursday evening for a clash with the Leon Lady Cougars in the Area Round of 2021 UIL Volleyball Playoffs.
The Lady Lions were fresh off of their straight sets sweep of West Hardin on Monday night in the Bi-District Round while the Lady Cougars had easily dispatched Kerens.
Lovelady came into the match with an overall record of 27-10 and had laid claim to the District 23-2A Championship. Meanwhile, the always tough Leon squad came into the Area Championship with a 32-9 record and had finished second in District 22-2A.
In the end, unfortunately for the Lovelady fans, the experience and mental toughness of playing at the highest level of volleyball paid off for the Lady Cougars as they took down the Lady Lions in three sets by a score of 27-25, 25-6 and 25-21 to advance to the Regional Quarterfinals next week.
As the match got underway, the Lady Cougars seized the early lead. Kill shots from Mihayia Davis and MaKenna Pierce helped keep the Lady Lions within striking distance.
Lovelady took its first lead of the set at 10-9, but a ruthless kill from Leon’s Lauren Sally knotted the score at 11. It seemed the Lady Cougars were about to go on a run but a kill from Davis and a strong block from Pierce, with help from Bailee Albinus, allowed Lovelady to re-tie the set at 14.
The Lady Lions opened up a three-point lead after Chelsea Butler slammed one home to take a 22-19 advantage, forcing Leon into a timeout. Following the break in action, the Lady Cougars stormed back to take the lead at 24-23 on an Emily Sitton cross-court kill.
Lovelady battled back to take a 25-24 lead but then the Lady Cougars rattled off three straight points to take the first set by a score of 27-25.
After coming so close in the first set, the Lady Lions looked spent in the second. Lovelady led by a count of 4-2 when Leon’s Katelyn Thomas went back to serve. Thomas rattled off 15 serves in a row as Lovelady simply didn’t have an answer and allowed Leon to balloon out to a 17-4 lead.
Another 6-0 run by the Lady Cougars put them on the brink of picking up the second set. The deficit proved to be too much to overcome and when Sitton dropped a jump serve just over the front line, Leon won the second set 25-6.
To their credit, Lovelady showed a lot of heart in the third. Down 0-2, the Lady Lions could have simply packed it in during set number three. They didn’t and finished out the match as if they were up 2-0 instead of down.
The Lady Cougars, once again, seized the early lead but a service ace from Shyanne Pipkin tied the score at four.
Leon went on a 4-0 run but Lovelady would not go away and when Davis walloped a shot between two defenders, the Lady Lions only trailed 12-10. Another 4-0 run by Leon came to a halt when Courtney Spoerle stuffed an attempted kill shot at the net.
Lovelady continued to whittle away at the Leon lead and when Davis spiked another shot into the center of the Lady Cougars’ defense, the score board read 22-14. Several uncharacteristic mistakes by Leon allowed the Lady Lions to creep within three at 22-19 but that was as close as they would get as the Lady Cougars were able to hang on for the 25-21 third set victory.
The win gave Leon the match by a count of 27-25, 25-6 and 25-21. It also sends them into the Regional Quarterfinals where they will face the Centerville Lady Tigers who defeated the Evadale Lady Rebels on Thursday.
The loss ends the Lady Lions’ season with a record of 27-11. While it was not the way the Lovelady players wanted the year to end, they should still be congratulated on a great volleyball season.
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].
