In a wild, back-and-forth outing at Warren Gym Tuesday night, the Brownwood Lady Lions were unable to put away the Lampasas Lady Badgers in five sets, but the increased comfort level and confidence of first-year head coach Cheyanne Lovelady’s squad was apparent despite the 17-25, 25-23, 25-19, 25-27, 15-12 setback.
“There’s a lot positives that came from today,” Lovelady said. “The girls are working really hard, they’re playing well together and they’re moving and talking much better. We stayed at practice Monday until 6 o’clock and we worked on a lot stuff. They’re absorbing everything I’m saying and being able to put it into play.”
Brownwood’s attack was sparked by Aubrie Felux with 16 kills trailed by Aniah Hines with 13, Hannah Deen with 12, Miranda Northcutt with seven, Emma Ringer with a pair, and Jaslin Jones, Molly Oliver, and Trinity Roberts with one apiece.
Hines served a team-best five aces followed by four from Deen and three each from Felux and Oliver.
Ringer dished out 19 assists while Icess Hall added 18, Oliver logged three, Hines chipped in two, and Deen was credited with one.
On the defensive end, Oliver notched a team-high 37 digs followed by Deen with 21, Ringer with 19, Felux with 18, Hall with 15, Jones with 12, Hines with seven, Northcutt with four, Chloe Walls with two, and Roberts with one.
At the net, Northcutt and Hines each finished with two blocks and Roberts added one.
In the first set, the Lady Lions broke a 3-all tie with a kill from Felux and never looked back. Brownwood’s lead steadily grew throughout the set, peaking at double figures, 20-10, after a kill by Hines. Lampasas did creep within five points, but no closer as the Lady Lions coasted to the finish.
“The girls were on fire when they came out and that’s what we talked about in the locker room,” Lovelady said. “We spent the hour before the game focused on coming out with as much energy as we could and that really helped us keep fighting through five sets.”
In the second and third sets, Brownwood dug itself large holes and was forced to play catch-up. The Lady Lions trailed 15-9 at one point in the second and came no closer than two points the rest of the way. In the third set, an early 10-7 Lampasas was erased as Brownwood pulled ahead, 17-16, on a kill by Northcutt, but the Lady Badgers reeled off nine of the final 11 points.
The fourth set saw Brownwood again in an early 10-4 hole but the Lady Lions rallied for a 15-14 lead after a Deen service ace. Lampasas then regained a 20-16 edge only for the Lady Lions to notch the next five points to reclaim a 21-20 advantage after a kill by Felux. Brownwood appeared poised to secure the set at 24-22, but Lampasas answered with three points in a row. The Lady Lions then knotted the score at 25 on a spike from Deen, took a 26-25 lead on an ace from Oliver, and a block by Roberts resulted in the decisive point.
“The girls showed a lot of heart,” Lovelady said in regard to the fourth set in particular. “I give them three goals before every game and one of them was just to have heart. We knew there would be lulls and we’d get stuck in a couple of serve receive rotations, but the fact they were able to just really dig in and have heart and be able to fight back, I was really proud of them for that.”
In the tiebreaker, the Lady Lions fell behind early 3-0 but established an 8-4 edge thanks to the service mastery of Hines. Still leading 12-8 after a kill from Oliver, the wheels fell off for Brownwood as Lampasas chalked up seven points in succession to snatch the victory.
“We got stuck in service receive and I think we’re still struggling with knowing how to finish, truly,” Lovelady said. “Sometimes it shocks us we’re playing so well and they’ve been used to being complacent so the grit and tenacity is growing, we’re just not there yet.”
Brownwood (4-13) will return to action Thursday at the Dublin tournament where the Lady Lions will face Poolville at 9 a.m. and Hawley at 11 a.m. in pool play competition.
“I definitely want to see us build off this, I don’t want to see us take any steps back,” Lovelady said. “The girls are working really, really hard and we need to keep building off this. We have a lot of stuff the girls want to work on in practice and we’re going to get in as much as we can this week and see if we can improve on those things at the Dublin tournament.”
