Published: November 01, 2009 01:51 am      

Lady Dogs drop tiebreaker match to Anderson

MADISONVILLE — The Lady Bulldogs wore some long faces following their tiebreaker match against Anderson-Shiro on Saturday.

In a battle for second place in District 21-2A, New Waverly had to settle for third after losing a tiebreaker match to the Lady Owls in four games, 25-13, 23-25, 25-16 and 25-21.

“We just didn’t come out as strong as we thought we would,” Lady Dogs senior Kayla Munoz said. “We hoped to come out a lot stronger than that. We didn’t play our best.

“We could’ve played better, but I think just the whole idea of being here and making it this far made us a little nervous. We were really excited. It’s just that our nerves got to us.”

The Lady Bulldogs now know that they’ll face Hemphill, the second-place finisher from District 22-2A, in the opening round of the playoffs on Tuesday with a time and place to be determined. New Waverly will play at either Livingston, Woodville or Groveton.

Senior Mallory Eastland led the Lady Dogs with seven kills. Sophomore Brianna LeFlore added five. Munoz chipped in with four kills. Seniors Alena Salinas and Chelsea Little contributed with two apiece.

New Waverly was slow getting out of the gates and Anderson took advantage. The Lady Dogs committed a handful of mistakes to start the first game and the Lady Owls quickly jumped out to a 14-4 lead.

Anderson-Shiro kept on rolling and built a 22-8 lead. New Waverly rallied to within 10 points at 22-12, but got started a little too late and couldn’t overcome the deficit.

“We didn’t have the intensity that I had hoped for in the beginning,” New Waverly head coach Stacy Hill said. “I think the girls were a little bit in shock. We’ve never played in a place this big or this nice. They’ve never played with this kind of pressure on them.”

After getting past the first game, the Lady Dogs suddenly found their rhythm.

In what was a tight second game from start to finish, New Waverly tied the match at one set apiece when Eastland spiked the ball, which struck the net and rolled over into Anderson territory for the game winner.

“In the second game, we were clicking real well,” Munoz said. “I thought it was just going to keep going uphill from there.”

But New Waverly couldn’t build off its success in the second game and the Lady Owls won the next two games, clinching the match when Little attempted to block a spike, but the ball fell out of bounds.

“I’m hoping that playing a good team like Anderson and getting that out of the way will help us as we go into Tuesday’s match,” Munoz said. “Now when we play Hemphill, I hope we come out strong and beat them in three games.”

Added Hill, “I want the girls to take away from this game things that they learned. You want to have momentum going into the playoffs. We took a team that has been to the playoffs for the last 10 years to four games. We didn’t just lay down and die.

“Our goal was to make it to the playoffs. We made that and now the goal is to keep going. I’m pretty pleased.”