CCLP/TJ MAXWELL - Lady Dawgs, from left, Kiarraj Carlisle (10), Brinna Acker, Chyanne Chapman and Aidan Chace celebrate a Chapman block that ended their five-set match against Liberty Hill on Tuesday. The Lady Dawgs won (26-28, 21-25, 25-17, 25-19, 15-9).CCLP/TJ MAXWELL - Cove senior Madison Wasiak makes a pass during the third set of the Lady Dawgs’ 3-2 win over No. 13 Liberty Hill.

BACK ON TRACK

Lady Dawgs rally to win marathon match against Class 4A No. 13 Liberty Hill
By TJ MAXWELL
Cove Leader-Press
 
The Copperas Cove Lady Dawgs volleyball team needed a spark.
 
After beginning the season with two tough losses to ranked opponents, they reeled off 16 wins in the next 19 contests for a 16-5 record before hitting another stumbling block last week in the Texas Showdown volleyball Classic to fall to 18-11 on the season.
 
It looked like the skid would continue Tuesday when the Lady Dawgs found themselves down 2-0 at home against the no. 13 ranked Liberty Hill Lady Panthers.
 
The underclass-heavy Lady Dawgs battled back from the brink of the sweep to earn their 19th win of the season.
 
“I’m really proud of the kids because we are so young,” said Cove head coach Cari Lowery. “We have three sophomores on the floor and we have five other kids that got playing time that this was their first varsity experience.
 
“Liberty Hill is a phenomenal program and a phenomenal team and that’s why we play them every year. You always have to fight with them. This was the first time we had to play a five-game match this year. For those girls to be down two games and come back and fight through it, I think it says a lot about them and about what our potential still is.”
 
Senior Chyanne Chapman could feel the momentum shift. A kill and a block by Chapman helped jumpstart that shift.
 
“I think we got our confidence up and we went for balls that we weren’t going for in the first two games and just played harder,” she said.
 
The Lady Dawgs also got a spark from an unexpected source, soft-spoken junior Talia Kinslow, in the third set that appeared ro swing momentum in the favor of the Lady Dawgs for the first time in the match. Kinslow had five of her second-best 12 kills in the set.
 
“We’ve been working on her because she’s a very shy girl,” said Lowery. “She’s very smart and coachable and we’ve really been working. We’ve had five whole practices this year. Yesterday, when we got to have our fifth practice, we got to work on that transition stuff and that sort of thing, and it paid off.”
 
The Lady Dawgs have a plethora of hitters to go to on that front line and Chapman feels that’s only going to help keep opposing defenses off balance.
 
“I think that we have the most stacked team offensively that we’ve had since I’ve been in high school,” she said. “We all know how to put the ball down and load. We are just getting better and better as we go.”
 
After taking their first lead of the evening, 6-3, on five-straight service points by senior Madison Wasiak, the Lady Panthers began to close the gap and threaten a sweep on the Lady Dawgs home floor. That’s when the Lady Dawgs began to exert control.
 
A pair of strong kills by Kinslow, set up by sophomore Aidan Chace, began the momentum shift. Big blocks by senior Chyanne Chapman, Brianna Acker and Dazsa Braddock helped Cove widen the gap to 20-15 before three more huge shots by Kinslow and assists by Chace closed out the game 25-17 to prevent the sweep.
 
“The turning point was deciding we were better than this,” said Lowery. “We didn’t pass well in the first two games. I said from the beginning, our passing is the key to what we’re capable of. We’ve got some offensive threats all the way across but we’ve got to get them the ball. Kiarrah Carlisle is a phenomenal setter. She makes things happen but, if we don’t get her the ball, we can’t do anything.”
 
Both teams battled back and forth in the fourth set with nine ties before a few Cove miscues allowed the Lady Panthers to edge away 18-15.
 
Kills by sophomores Jada Close and Chace helped the Lady Dawgs knot the match again at 18-all before a 6-1 run closed the game, 25-19, and knotted the match at two-all.
 
A pair of aces by Wasiak and a push kill by Chapman gave the Lady Dawgs the lead, 22-19, and a pair of soft directional shots by Chace closed out he set for the Lady Dawgs.
 
It was all Cove in the fifth and deciding set.
 
Liberty Hill took an early lead but the Lady Dawgs responded with an 8-1 run capped by Chapman’s 11th block of the contest. A pair of kills by Chace fed into the run.
 
A kill by Liberty Hill’s Gabi Sommerfield briefly halted the Cove run but a strong kill by Acker off the assist by Chace regained the momentum while Chace’s team-high 17th kill of the contest gave the Lady Dawgs a 12-7 lead and Chapman’s game-high 12th block ended set, 15-9, and match, 3-2.
 
Chace again showed her value on the court the 17 kills to go along with a second-best 19 assists, 16 digs and three blocks.
 
“I expect a lot of Aidan and she’s getting better every time she steps on the floor,” said Lowery. “She wants to be a sophomore sometimes but that’s just a little mental focus thing. She’s a player that’s capable of making something out of nothing. She’s got a fast arm swing and she’s a really smart, aggressive player.”
 
Chapman, the school record-holder in blocks, added another dozen to her resume to lead the Lady Dawgs defense at the net.
 
Senior setter Kiarrah Carlisle led the team in assists with 24. Wasiak led the team in digs with 44 with Carlisle and sophomore Aviyon Wilborn adding 17 each. Senior Aniessa Vega tied Wasiak for the ace lead with four each. Acker had a third-best nine kills and Braddock had a second-best four blocks.
 
Chapman feels this was a big win for the team moving forward.
 
“It really helped us for the long run,” she said. “We learned not to give up even if we’re down 0-2.”
 
Lowry is just excited to get an opportunity to practice, after having just five all year, and tweak some things with the weeklong rest period before their non-district finale against Waco Robinson on Tuesday.
 
“For some of those kids that haven’t had this experience, we say we’ve got to learn on the fly,” said Lowery. “They do learn quite a bit but there are those little techniques that you can’t teach in a game. They have to practice and I saw our practice in the game today. We get to have four more practices and I’m extremely excited about that. I don’t ever like to have a day off from a game, but we played 30 games in three weeks. That’s a lot for a young team like this and for an old woman like me. They need this recovery time and we need to be able to work on some things and make some changes.”
 

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