'State' of joy come in fives for Lady Hounds

Greg Webb

sports@weatherforddemocrat.com

ABILENE — Nothing comes easy, and the Peaster Lady Hounds can attest to that. Each of the last three playoff contests for Peaster, winding its way through the Class 2A Region I bracket, have gone to five games before coming to a conclusive, and successful resolution.

The Lady Hounds, along with the Denver City Fillies, gave the attending crowd all of the excitement, and drama, that could be expected as the girls battled for each point through the match in the regional championship match. Down the final stretch, the persistence of the PHS volleyball squad prevailed, 12-25, 25-13, 19-25, 25-18, 15-10.

The Region I Champion Lady Hounds’ victory earns the girls a trip to San Marcos, to compete in the Class 2A state tourney, this weekend, at a date and time to be determined.

In the deciding fifth game, the teams kept each other in check through 10 points, when a tip drill at the net favored Peaster. From the 6-5 score, forward, the Lady Hounds picked up a point increase with every couple of serves, eventually building a 12-8 edge. With the Peaster crowd getting louder with each serve, the Lady Hounds put the game away when an errant return by Denver City sailed off the court.

“It’s funny,” said Peaster head coach Dianna French. “When we got to the fifth game I felt really good about [the match], because these are my five-game girls. And they did it.”

The Fillies came out swinging in a dominant fashion from the start, displaying the spiking talents of a pair of 5’11” outside hitters. Shahala Hawkins, a sophomore, and junior Breann David wowed the crowd with some early crushing kills to set the pace of the first tilt.

“We talked to the girls about the fact that [Denver City] was good, but they cannot get but one point at a time,” said French. “And then they have to serve to us. As long as we can be aggressive right back to them, then it’s a game ... anybody’s game.

“And that’s why we choose to play the big schools in our [early] tournaments, so we’re not intimidated when we come up against good teams like this.”

The Lady Hounds countered with a bevy of kills themselves, led by seniors Courtney Haney and Skye Daugherty. Peaster kept the spikes coming from all directions as freshman Kelsie Coplen and junior May Allen shored up the middle net. As the match wore on, the PHS blockers became more efficient, knowing where the Fillies power was coming from and better neutralizing the Denver City attack.

In the fourth frame, Denver City (31-7) continued the momentum built up in the previous game, jumping out to a 4-1 lead and holding firm with the margin until the scores approached double digits. Peaster’s Shayla Colliflower took the serve and proceeded to lead the Lady Hounds to a nine-all deadlock. Taking the lead with the next point, Peaster never relinquished the edge, closing out with a 25-18 win and sending the match into a fifth game.

On Friday, the Lady Hounds set up the Region I final, beating the Alpine Lady Bucks, who finished their season with a 33-8 overall record. In a contest that saw Peaster well into the fourth game before finding the dominant play it had been seeking, the Lady Hounds came from behind to beat Alpine in five games, 18-25, 25-17, 17-25, 25-11, 15-12.

The Lady Bucks developed no dominant hitters in the game, but were adept early on of keeping the ball in play to let the Lady Hounds make the mistakes.

In Game 1, French called a timeout after an opening run put the Lady Hounds down by a handful. PHS never made a serious charge, managing to close the deficit by a pair, but falling behind by 10 toward the end of the game.

In the second segment, Haney and Daugherty began to find some kill opportunities, but bested the Lady Bucks primarily using their own first-game tactic of keeping the ball alive until an error occurred.

All even into the third game, the teams climbed to double digits together, until Peaster lost momentum and could not keep up with the resurgent Lady Bucks.

Peaster caught fire in the fourth frame, running up a 10-0 lead with Daugherty handling serve duties. The Lady Greyhounds were noticeably more relaxed and significantly more aggressive than at any other time in the match. Alpine made a few short runs to lower the deficit, but the Peaster girls kept the pressure on and the kills coming to win by a 14-point advantage.

The deciding game produced an early deficit for the Lady Bucks, with Peaster continuing its aggressive play. The Lady Hounds built up a five-point edge in the final game to 15, allowing Alpine to close to a 12-10 score before running the table to win the semifinal match. Peaster takes a 36-4 record to San Marcos.