The positive momentum the Brownwood Lady Lions established last week with a pair of victories on the first day of volleyball season carried over to Tuesday’s home opener, as head coach Allison Smith’s squad chalked up a 25-18, 17-25, 25-21, 25-23 triumph over Class 6A San Angelo Central at Warren Gym.
“Defensively, serve receive, that looked very good. I’m happy with how that looked,” Smith said. “Offensively, we went through some ups and downs where we were getting the connections with the setters vs. not getting those connections. All in all, we had everybody step up and they made up for where those connections were lacking and they fixed it for the most part. There’s definitely some room to improve with our serves and making crucial serves and not letting the match be so back and forth, but we just took down a very good 6A team.”
Olivia Fowler and Tessa Goodwin led the charge for Brownwood with 12 kills apiece followed by eight from Gracie Boswell, seven from Kylie Morris, two from Jaylen Savage and one from Jordan Northcutt.
Kylie Wooten dished out 18 assists trailed by 15 from Goodwin and a pair from Kassidy Wooten.
Fowler also served a team-high four aces with Goodwin chipping in two and Boswell contributing one.
On the defensive end, Boswell logged 20 digs trailed by 17 from Kassidy Wooten, 16 from Fowler, 11 from Morris, eight from Goodwin, seven from Kylie Wooten, and two each from Savage and Northcutt.
At the net, Savage recorded five blocks while Northcutt and Morris added two each and Goodwin was credited with one.
“Olivia Fowler was great all-around – serving, defensively, kills – she led us all-around on the stats board,” Smith said. “Everybody stepped up in different ways, Jaylen and Kylie in the middle blocking position, Gracie defensively and offensively as well, Tessa and Kylie Wooten on their setting, I could go down the line and say they all eventually did their jobs and when one of them lacked the other person was there to pick them up.”
The Lady Lions coasted through the first set, but hit a bump in the road in the second. Trailing 11-7 in the third, Brownwood was able to wrestle the momentum back in its favor.
After gradually working their way back to a 13-all tie, the Lady Lions found themselves again in a 16-14 hole. Aided by a trio of Central miscues, Brownwood clawed back to grab a 17-16 advantage. Knotted at 18, a kill from Goodwin gave the Lady Lions the lead for good, 19-18, as Boswell followed with a kill of her own and Fowler delivered an ace for a 21-18 edge.
“They just decided to light a fire a little bit,” Smith said of the third-set turnaround. “I told them to relax and play their game and have fun. They really started doing that in the third set. They clinched up in the second set and the momentum went down and it took us a while to pick it back up in the third set. Once they did, they had control again.”
After yielding the first three points of the fourth set, the Lady Lions went on an 8-2 spurt, capped by an ace from Goodwin that gave Brownwood an 8-5 lead.
Central fought back to seize a 16-13 advantage, only for the Lady Lions to reel off five straight points. Another ace from Fowler and a kill by Savage capped the run, giving Brownwood an 18-16 edge it never relinquished.
The Lady Lions (3-0) return to action this weekend at the Glen Rose tournament with four matches set to take place Friday, followed by bracket play Saturday.
