The Brownwood Lady Lions notched their second straight District 6-4A volleyball victory Tuesday night at Warren Gym, collecting a 25-20, 25-13, 25-9 triumph over the Lampasas Lady Badgers.
After a slow start, Lady Lions second-year head coach Allison Smith was pleased with the way the team came on as the match progressed.
“I was happy with how we finished,” Smith said. “The second and third sets were more our tempo, the first set we definitely played to their level. We can’t do that, we have to play our game and remember to put the ball down when we’re given the opportunity, cram when we’re not, and play smart.”
Katelyn Windham led the Lady Lions attack with 11 kills followed by Kylie Morris and Tessa Goodwin with seven apiece, Olivia Fowler with five, Jaylen Savage with four, Ashlyn Storm with three and Gracie Boswell with one.
Goodwin recorded 25 assists trailed by Moody with four and Becca Church with one.
Goodwin also tallied five aces followed by Windham with four, Moody with three, and Fowler, Morris and Kassidy Wooten with one apiece.
“Definitely our serving,” Smith said in regard to what stood out most from the Lady Lions’ performance. “We’ve been struggling a little bit lately missing serves and I think we got back on track. We missed a few but that’s just going to happen with the type of serves we have. Tessa and Moody had good runs with serves, quite a few of them had good runs.”
On the defensive end, Moody racked up 18 digs followed by Church and Goodwin with nine apiece, Fowler with eight, Morris with five, Wooten with four, Savage with two and Windham with one.
At the net, Savage logged two blocks with Windham and Storm providing one apiece.
In the opener, the Lady Lions jumped out to a 5-0 lead following a kill by Windham. The lead increased to 13-7 with a spike from Storm, and stood at 19-12 following an ace from Morris. Lampasas charged to within two points, 22-20, but the Lady Lions answered with the final three points on a tip by Goodwin, a serve receive error by the Lady Badgers, and an ace from Goodwin.
The second set saw Brownwood race out to a 7-3 lead after an ace from Moody. Lampasas closed the gap to 9-8, but the Lady Lions answered with nine of the next 10 points to stretch the advantage to 18-9. A tip from Goodwin started the run, Windham picked up a kill and Wooten added an ace as well. Lampasas reduced the deficit to 19-13, but Brownwood notched the final six points with a kill from Fowler closing out the victory.
In the finale, the Lady Lions were clinging to a 10-8 lead but reeled off 15 of the next 16 points to complete the sweep. The advantage reached double figures, 18-8, on a block by Savage, and an ace from Goodwin ended the contest.
The Lady Lions (8-5, 2-0) are back in action at 5:30 p.m. Friday when they host Gatesville.
“Gatesville’s a good, solid team and watching film on them they definitely have a good serving team so we’ll definitely have to work on our serve receive and make sure we’re on target,” Smith said. “I’m usually pretty confident with our serve receive, but going to have to work with them and make sure they’re ready.”
