BRECKENRIDGE – A frustrating fourth-place finish in the District 6-4A volleyball race became a distant memory for the Brownwood Lady Lions Monday night as they earned their second straight bi-district championship with a 25-20, 25-22, 25-23 victory over the District 5-4A champion and 14th-ranked Iowa Park Lady Hawks.
“It’s not only gratifying to have a win, a victory, a trophy, and going on to the second round, that’s always great, but what’s so important is we finally got back to what we saw all pre-district,” said Lady Lions third-year head coach Allison Smith. “It was so frustrating during district because we were missing it, but now we’ve got a great chance and opportunity to fight and show what we’re all about in the playoffs where it matters.”
Making its 17th postseason appearance in 18 years, Brownwood (20-11) had actually defeated Iowa Park (31-13) – who carried a 16-game win streak into Monday’s match – twice earlier this season during the Glen Rose tournament back in August, though both were best-of-three set matches.
“I was a little more worried having played them and having the success we had because they got better throughout the season where I felt like we didn’t show our potential during district,” Smith said. “They placed first in their district and they’re a good, well-rounded team. I told the girls it doesn’t matter than we won twice against them, everyone is 0-0 when it comes to the playoffs. They really came in and had the fight and the guts to go out tonight and leave it all on the court.”
Regarding the biggest differences between Monday’s performance and what the Lady Lions experienced during their 3-5 district run, Smith said, “We got in system a lot more, we got our serve receive going again, our defense was on point today, and we got our offense going, too. Olivia Fowler, she just killed it. She had a fast arm swing and got her shots in, and we didn’t scramble so much. We got set and we played our game. There were a couple of mishaps, but actually we were able to stop the bleeding fast. We had a game plan going in against them and I told them we could plan all day like we did in district, but if you don’t play your game there’s no point in it. And they played their game tonight.”
Olivia Fowler led the offensive onslaught with 16 kills trailed by 11 from Gracie Boswell, seven each from Jaylen Savage and Tessa Goodwin, and two from Kylie Morris.
Kylie Wooten dished out 23 assists while Goodwin contributed a dozen and Kassidy Wooten chipped in a pair.
Fowler also served a team-high three aces while Kassidy Wooten and Kylie Wooten added one apiece.
Defensively, Kassidy Wooten logged 21 assists followed by Kylie Wooten with 18, Morris with 15, Fowler and Goodwin with 13 apiece, Boswell with seven, Ashlyn Harris with three and Savage with one.
Morris and Goodwin finished with two blocks each while Fowler, Savage, Boswell and Ava Choate were each credited with one.
In the first set against Iowa Park, the Lady Lions yielded the initial two points but answered with six in a row and never trailed again. The Lady Hawks closed the gap to 7-6 but Brownwood fired back with four straight points to pad the cushion to 11-6.
The lead continued to grow and peaked at nine points, 21-12, on a kill by Fowler. The Lady Hawks eventually crept within 24-20 before Goodwin found a hole in the defense for the decisive point.
The second set featured much of the same as a 9-all tie was broken by the Lady Lions as part of an 8-0 run. A kill from Fowler began the surge, she served two aces along the way, and Savage chipped in a kill as well.
Leading comfortably 19-10, the Lady Lions witnessed Iowa Park claw back into the contest and trim the deficit to 19-18. There, Boswell delivered consecutive kills as Brownwood pushed its lead back to three points, 21-18.
Clinging to a 23-22 lead, the Lady Lions were the recipients of a pair of misfortunes for Iowa Park as four touches on the Lady Hawks’ side of the net resulted in the 24th point, and miscommunication during the Iowa Park offensive attack logged the 25th point for Brownwood.
Presented with the opportunity to complete the sweep, the Lady Lions took a 10-9 lead in the third set on yet another kill by Fowler. Iowa Park responded with its biggest spurt of momentum in the match, reeling off nine of the next 11 points to grab an 18-12 advantage.
But the Lady Lions displayed a tough as leather resiliency down the stretch, gradually chipping away at Iowa Park’s advantage. Still down 23-21, Brownwood received consecutive kills from Savage that knotted the score at 23, then Kylie Wooten served an ace to give the Lady Lions a 24-23 edge. Following a time out by Iowa Park, the Lady Hawks’ final spike sailed past the end line, as the Lady Lions recorded the final four points to complete an improbable third-set rally.
“I needed a defibrillator on the sideline,” Smith said of the final set. “That just shows the resiliency that we have with this team. That’s what we did in pre-district. We were down a few times and fought back against 6A teams and put the ball down and got back in system. As long as we can get back in system it doesn’t matter how far down we are because we can make runs as well.”
The Lady Lions will next face No. 23 Argyle (28-12), the District 7-4A runner-up, at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Brock. Argyle defeated Fort Worth Dunbar in three sets in bi-district action.
