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Pantherettes Pounce

By TJ MAXWELL
 
WACO – The Midway Lady Panthers displayed what has them in the Top 25 of Class 6A rankings in a strong 3-1 (25-13, 25-14, 22-25, 25-12) win over the Copperas Cove Lady Dawgs Tuesday at Panther Gymnasium in Waco. “It was a huge win for us,” said Midway head coach Ryan Porter after the game. “We knew it would be a challenge when they came in to our place, but we wanted to hopefully have some confidence when we went into theirs. It’ll be a much tougher match there than tonight, just because of the hometown setting. Copperas Cove fans do a great job of coming out to support their program.” The Lady Dawgs (29- 10 overall, 2-1 in District 12-6A) were unable to match the offensive output by the Pantherettes (25-6, 4-0). Midway had a nearly .500 hitting percentage in a dominant showing, led by junior Samantha Sanders’ game-high 23 kills and 18 kills on a .560 percentage by junior Allye Beth Deaton. The Lady Dawgs looked out of sync all night but much of that was dictated by the Midway offense by design. The Pantherettes attacked the outside to avoid the strong defense at the net in the middle. “I’d prefer to have more out of the middle,” said Porter. “But it was part of the game plan (to attack the outside). They have some inexperienced players in the middle, so we wanted to attack them by making them choose left or right.” That game plan worked nearly flawlessly in the first two sets where the Lady Panthers executed at will on their way to a 2-0 lead. A kill by Cove’s Jennifer Eubanks showed promise for the first point but an 8-2 run, paced by four Midway kills allowed Midway to take control of the set 8-3. The Lady Dawgs battled back to within four, 12-8, with a kill by junior Brianna Acker on the set by Kiarrah Carlisle and a pair of service points by junior Madison Wasiak. The Pantherettes responded with a 13-4 run to close out the set and set the tone fore the match. Sophomore Emery Judkins, Deaton and Sanders contributed kills during the run and junior Emma Hinojos registered an ace. The Lady Dawgs battled early in the second set. After falling behind 7-3, kills by juniors Chyanne  Chapman and Acker and senior Eubanks, along with a block by senior Raeven Dickerson, allowed Cove to pull within one, 11-10. Midway again answered with a strong offensive output as part of a 14-4 run to close the set. Kills by Sanders and Deaton and a block by junior Miranda Youmans led the effort. The Lady Dawgs found some life offensively in the third set when kills by Eubanks and Dickerson on sets by senior Katy Ranes, along with a pair of blocks by Chapman, help push Cove to a 6-3 lead. After kills by Youmans and Sanders pull Midway within one again, 8-7, Cove pushed their lead to eight with a 9-2 run. A kill by Chapman and a block by seniors Megan Diaz and Dickerson began the run and a strong dig by senior Bailey French resulted in a in the first of three kills by Eubanks for three of Cove’s five points in the run. Another block by Diaz capped the run. The Pantherettes kept chewing away at the Lady Dawgs’ lead, but timely kills by Dickerson, Ranes and Eubanks, paired with a block by Ranes, kept Cove out front 22-17. A few Cove miscues allowed Midway to creep within two, 22-20, but attacks by Dickerson closed the set for Cove, 25-22. The Lady Dawgs again kept it close early in the final set with Midway holding a two-point edge mid-way through the set. Kills by Dickerson, Chapman and Ranes contributed to the Cove scoring. Midway then ran away with the match with a 14-3 run to close out the deciding set. A big kill by sophomore Kennady Childers and back-to-back blocks by Sanders and Childers, respectively, set the tone. Cove’s only points in that run came off of Midway miscues. The Pantherettes served into the net twice and hit out of bounds for the other point. Eubanks led the Cove offense with 11 kills, followed by Dickerson (6), Chapman (5), Acker (4) and Ranes (4). French led the digs category with 29 and Wasiak had 11. Diaz led in  locks with five. Ranes had 12 assists and Carlisle added 10. Midway’s distributors Bianca Covento and Madison Rohre combined for 60 assists. The Cove freshman came away victorious with a 2-0 (25-14, 25-19) win and the junior varsity survived 2-1 (27- 25, 14-25, 25-19) for the win. The Lady Dawgs return to action tonight with a road trip to Killeen High School to take on the Lady Roos. They will get another chance at Midway when the Pantherettes come to Cove on Friday, Oct. 16.
 

 

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