The Brownwood Lady Lions brought an end to their four-match skid in dramatic fashion Tuesday night, rallying from a two-sets-to-one deficit to upend the Glen Rose Lady Tigers, 26-28, 25-12, 22-25, 25-23, 15-8 at Warren Gym in the District 6-4A opener for both squads.
“It just shows the tenacity of my girls,” Lady Lions’ second-year head coach Allison Smith said of the victory. “They knew that we were killing ourselves, and the last few games it’s been easy for us to get down on ourselves whenever we started doing that. But they made the shift today, they made the decision today to come out and to win. I can’t be more proud of them, every one of them.”
Katelyn Windham and Ashlyn Storm led the way for the Brownwood (7-5, 1-0) offense with 11 kills apiece followed by Tessa Goodwin and Kylie Morris with eight each, Jaylen Savage with seven, Olivia Fowler with six, and Gracie Boswell and Becca Church with one each.
Goodwin distributed 42 assists while Moody and Windham were each credited with one.
The Lady Lions served 29 aces led by Morris with eight, Moody, Goodwin, Fowler and Windham followed with three each and Boswell chipped in one.
Defensively, Moody logged 26 digs trailed by Goodwin with 21, Boswell with 18, Fowler with 14, Morris with 10, Church with eight, Windham with seven, and Storm, Savage, and Kassidy Wooten with four each.
At the net, Savage registered five blocks followed by Morris with three, Storm and Goodwin with two each and Windham and Fowler one apiece.
Smith credited the comeback victory to a late surge in energy and the Lady Lions’ ability to correct their own mistakes on the fly.
“We led ourselves with the energy, the crowd fell in with the energy and that’s just so crucial for us or any team really,” Smith said. “Our blocks in the beginning they were there, they just weren’t pressing over the net. We had a few errors and then at the end they fixed it and that just shows how well-rounded my girls are. They can fix themselves. They always turn to me and ask what’s wrong and they’re either thinking too much or not thinking enough is what I usually tell them, and they really fixed themselves tonight which was important for us. It’s the reason we got the win.”
In the decisive fifth set, Brownwood tallied seven of the first 10 points. A kill from Morris and an ace from Moody extended the lead to 7-3, but Glen Rose stormed back to close the gap to 8-7. Coming out of a Brownwood timeout, the Lady Lions received a couple of kills from Storm, another ace by Fowler and a kill from Windham to push the lead to 12-7. The Lady Lions completed their 7-1 closing surge with a hitting error from Glen Rose that put the final touches on a Brownwood win.
The Lady Lions forced the tie-breaking set by climbing out of a 5-2 hole to start the fourth with six consecutive points, including two on aces by Morris and another on a kill from Fowler. Leading 8-5 the Lady Lions gradually extended the lead and owned a 23-18 advantage after a kill by Windham. Glen Rose, however, crept within a point, 24-23, before Savage concluded the set with a spike.
In the opening set the Lady Lions owned leads of 22-18, 24-22, and 25-24, but could not complete the victory as Glen Rose snatched a 28-26 win in the opener.
The Lady Lions then roared back in the second set, notching 21 of the first 26 points en route to a comfortable 25-12 victory.
The third set got off to a nightmarish start for Browwnood, which fell behind 8-0. The Lady Lions reduced the deficit to 8-7, but never pulled even or led in the third set. Down 18-12 at one point, Brownwood got as close as 21-19 on another ace from Morris, but couldn’t complete the rally.
The Lady Lions play four straight district home matches in a row, then close district with four straight matches away from Warren Gym. The first of two district byes for Brownwood falls Friday, then Lampasas comes to town Tuesday, Sept. 29.
“You see how they’re celebrating now and that’s great,” Smith said. “They’re just having a good time and that’s important. We’re off on Friday but hopefully we’ll have good, hard practices the rest of the week and keep our momentum and energy. They’re all pumped up right now and they played like a mature team. Words can’t express how happy I am with them.”
