Playing six matches in their two-day stint at the inaugural Heart of Texas volleyball tournament, the Brownwood Lady Lions appeared to run out of steam down the stretch and finished with a 3-3 overall record and fourth-place finish in the gold bracket.
“Overall I’m just very proud of the girls,” said Lady Lions second-year head coach Cheyanne Lovelady. “I thought they played very hard and we are tired and that led to a lot of our errors, being exhausted from the last couple of days. But I feel like they improved with every game.”
Following a 2-1 performance in pool play Thursday, the Lady Lions came back to the Brownwood Coliseum Saturday and opened with a 27-25, 25-18 victory over Bangs, dropped a 16-25, 25-18, 15-12 decision to Comanche to miss out on the championship match, then fell to the Abilene Wylie JV for the second time in the tournament, 25-18, 25-19, in the third-place match.
Despite sputtering to the finish line, Lovelady started there are plenty of positives for the Lady Lions (5-8) to build upon with the start of District 6-4A action still over a month away.
“One of the biggest things for me was being able to see our mental toughness,” Lovelady said. “When we get down and have errors, the girls have shown they can come back from that. We had runs where we had error after error, but I was able to call a time out and bring the girls in and tell them that we had to move on from it, and they did. They brought momentum and energy and were able to get over some humps.”
In the opening match against Bangs, the Lady Lions rallied from an 11-6 deficit in the opening set to snatch the victory. Still trailing 21-19, a pair of spikes from Aubrie Felux left the Bangs defense flummoxed and allowed Brownwood to draw even at 21. The teams continued to trade points, but Brownwood down again 25-24, the Lady Lions completed the comeback with three kills in succession from Felux for the two-point triumph.
The second set against saw the Lady Lions fall behind again 12-10, but a kill from Hannah Deen and a dual block from Aniah Hines and Trinity Roberts knotted the score at 12. Deen served an ace to push Brownwood in front, 13-12, and Felux and Hines delivered kills to extend the Lady Lions’ lead to 15-12. Three more points came Brownwood’s way to cap an 8-0 surge as a spike from Roberts and another ace from Deen helped increase the advantage to 18-12.
In the match against Comanche, Brownwood started as quickly as it has perhaps in any match this season, racing out to a 14-4 edge. Blocks from Demayha Hooker, Miranda Northcutt and Roberts helped the Lady Lions build the double-digit lead, along with kills from Felux and one by Maddi Scott.
Comanche stormed back to within 16-14, but three straight kills from Hines, and a Deen ace, gave the Lady Lions some breathing room at 20-14.
In the second set, Brownwood owned a 16-14 advantage but the wheels fell off as Comanche closed with 11 of the final 13 points to even the match.
The Maidens carried that momentum into the tiebreaking set, opening a 5-1 lead. A kill from Northcutt followed by an ace from Felux allowed Brownwood to complete a comeback and draw even at 7, but Comanche scored six of the next seven points and the Lady Lions couldn’t escape a 13-8 hole.
In the finale against the Wylie JV, the Lady Lions were again forced to try and dig themselves out of a hole, falling behind 5-1 in the first set. In the second set, the Lady Lions opened a 10-5 advantage after an ace from Roberts. Still in front 16-12 after a hitting error by Wylie, Brownwood yielded 10 of the next 11 points as the Lady Lions suddenly faced a 22-17 deficit.
The darkest moment of the entire weekend for the Lady Lions was yet to come, however, as in the waning moments of the Wylie JV match, Deen turned her left ankle coming down at the net. The severity of the injury was unknown immediately after the game, but it is anticipated Deen will miss playing time.
The Lady Lions are back in action at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday as they play host to Llano.