No sting here

LINDSAY – Dodd City is known more as a basketball school than for volleyball, the Lady Hornets currently ranked 3rd in the Class A preseason polls.

Dodd City got some due respect from Bryson in volleyball circles Monday night in a regional quarterfinal matchup here, the Lady Hornets coming from behind and winning game one 25-21 before Bryson came from behind to win the next three games 25-23, 25-12, 25-22 to advance the Cowgirls into the Region II Tournament beginning Friday in Midlothian.

Bryson will face the winner of this evening’s Abbott-Calvert match in a 1 p.m. Friday semifinal. The winner Friday will play in Saturday’s noon Final for the right to go to State. 

Bryson Coach Chelsea Kincaid said her squad had respect for their foes before the 91-minute match even started.

“Dodd City was a pretty darn good team,” Kincaid said. “We knew from the beginning that our defense was going to have to be solid, and our front row was going to have to come out swinging.”

The Cowgirls did just that in the opener with Sydney Davidson and Maddee Moore laying down kills early, the latter also serving up five points to put Bryson up 13-7. The Lady Hornets got within 14-13 before a Davidson kill and Kayleigh Pippin point extended the lead to three.

A Moore kill broke serve and Davidson point gave Bryson a 19-16 lead. The Cowgirls led 20-17 before Dodd City mounted a comeback, Delaini Cooper serving up an ace between a pair of Cowgirls to close out game one.

Brinkley Richardson staked Bryson to another early lead in game two only to have Dodd City come storming back and take a 6-4 lead. Davidson’s pair of points put Bryson up 8-7 before a four-point string by the Lady Hornets put the squad up 18-13.

Bryson broke serve with a six-point Richardson string giving Bryson a 22-20 lead to the delight of a partisan Cowgirl crowd. The squads traded points before a Moore kill evened the match at a game each.

A three-point Pippin string to open game three and four-point run by Kyla Jones put the Cowgirls up 13-5. Dodd City would get no closer than four the rest of the game, freshman Windsor Godfrey rolling off the final four tallies, with some frontcourt work from Davidson helping to put Bryson up 2-1 in the match.

Junior Alyssa Perez’s four-point run staked Bryson to a 7-2 lead in the nightcap.  Dodd City would come back and take a 9-8 lead. 

The Lady Hornets led 20-16 at one point before the Cowgirls mounted a comeback. A Godfrey deuce brought Bryson within one. Perez then ran off a pair of her own with Richardson’s block putting Bryson up 22-21. The Cowgirls would then take control from there to end the match