By Mark Slette
Sports Staff Writer/Photographer
Coming into the night the Cowgirls stood with a record of 25 and 2 for the season. The girls were looking for their 3rd straight win in the last 3 games. Could they pull it off against the fierce Allen Lady Eagles?
The answer would be yes, as Coppell swept the Lady Eagles out of the gym in three sets, 25-21, 25-18, and 25-21.
Junior libero Ashley Rich started the game strong with a strong ace. After taking an early lead the Cowgirls gave themselves no reason to look back.
Though they coasted through the first set with little trouble, things started off a little slow. Slowing the game down worked to the Cowgirls’ weakness. They weren’t able to play the game at their own pace, and, in turn, had a tough time setting up the flow of the game.
“We started off a little rocky but then we started getting into our groove and started to play our game by the end,” senior, libero Alex Silver said.
“I think we’re looking to start off the game with a little more intensity,” head volleyball coach Julie Green said.
Going back and forth with the Eagles, the Cowgirls prevailed and snatched the first set. The score ended up being 25 to 21.
The second set came around and it seemed that the girls were starting to click.They began to take advantage of the Eagles missed serves, miscommunications and failures to finish off points. The cowgirls capitalize and kept the momentum going in their favor. With a nice ace by junior outside hitter Natalie Gilbert, a key block by senior middle blocker Mary-Kate Marshall, and sophomore middleblocker Jamie Stivers serving the girls out and into the final set. The girls completed the second set with a score of 25-18.
The girls never gave up and kept pushing forward in the third set. With great defensive blocks by Stivers and Kate Dicken, the girls continued to roll on. Towards the end of the set the girls struggled to close out the game. Allen made things difficult towards the end as they had a 7-3 run to get within three points of Coppell, but the girls put it away with one final point to earn the sweep.
After the game Stivers commented upon the game and said “We played pretty well, we can do better, but we pulled it out in the end.”
