CCLP/TJ MAXWELL - Copperas Cove junior Talia Kinslow (7) hits for one of her game-high 21 kills in the Lady Dawgs’ 3-2 win over the Belton Lady Tigers on Tuesday in Belton.CCLP/TJ MAXWELL - Cove sophomore Aidan Chace hits one of her three kills before leaving the game with a right leg injury during the first set against Belton.

EPIC CLASH

LDVB escapes Belton with 3-2 win over Lady Tigers (25-13, 21-25, 25-19, 22-25, 16-14)
By TJ MAXWELL
Cove Leader-Press
 
BELTON - One play can change the complexion of a game.
 
The Copperas Cove Lady Dawg volleyball team was riding high with an 18-9 lead over the Belton Lady Tigers when Cove’s leading hitter and all-around player, sophomore Aidan Chace, left the game after appearing to hit the net pole and landing awkwardly while trying to reach an errant pass.
 
The Lady Dawgs went on to win the set 25-13 but were obviously discombobulated by the absence of their top offensive weapon.
 
“She plays all the way around,” said Copperas Cove head volleyball coach Cari Lowery. “She sets for me and she leads my team in kills so that was tough. That was a rotation we’ve never played before.”
 
It was a tough blow for Lowery and her squad, but she has the next up attitude and it paid off.
 
“You just have to deal with it,” she said. “That’s something that 15 years ago that might have shook me and I might have panicked on what to do. I’ve seen just about everything you can image over the years and you can’t let it get in your head as a coach because you players are feeding off of you. If I get shook up, what’s going to happen to them?”
 
Lowery stayed the course, despite at times having four first-year varsity players on the court as once.
 
Junior Talia Kinslow, one of those first-year varsity players for the Lady Dawgs, stepped up to fill the offensive void. She notched a game-high 21 kills, including an impressive eight kills in the fifth and deciding set to give Cove a 3-2 win over Lady Tigers (25-13, 21-25, 25-19, 22-25, 16-14) Tuesday in Belton.
 
“I’m really proud of Talia Kinslow,” said Lowery. “She stepped up and rose to the occasion. That’s what a great player does – they step up for their team when they need them. Talia has not played on the back row or served in a game all year long. She had several aces and got kills from everywhere so I’m very proud of that.”
 
With the seesaw match tied at two games apiece, Kinslow scored four of Cove’s first six points on assists by senior Kiarrah Carlisle to take a 6-4 lead in the race to 15.
 
After Belton took advantage of a pair of miscommunication issues by Cove to give the Lady Tigers a 7-6 lead, a play at the net by senior Chyanne Chapman and another Kinslow kill gave Cove a 9-7 advantage.
 
A pair of Kinslow kills sandwiched two Belton points to push the score to matchpoint at 14-13 for Cove but a rare serve out of bounds again knotted the match at 14-all.
 
A pair of heads up plays by Chapman with dumps into gaps in the Tiger defense closed out the match.
 
Lowery knows the value of having those experienced players in tight games like these.
 
“It is (very valuable), even though we had very few experienced players,” she said. “We stepped up. Kiarrah Carlisle, my setter, that is the first time she set all the way around on six rotations. That’s much more work and much more tiring for them to have to go block, step off and sett, then go play defense. She stepped up and controlled our offense like she needed to.”
 
Seniors Acker and Chapman provide stability for Lowery along the front line as well. Acker had a second-best 19 kills, including some big momentum-changing blasts.
 
“That’s what she has got to do,” said Lowery. “She is our big powerful hitter so she has to get in there and make things happen.”
 
The Lady Tigers took full advantage off the Lady Dawg lull following the Chace injury to jump on top 5-1 to start the second set led by kills from junior LeDea Harris. An ace by junior Kale Kincannon stymied a small run for Cove and helped the Lady Tigers push their lead to seven, 11-5.
 
Kills by senior Brianna Acker and Kinslow helped Cove cut the deficit to, 13-11. A back and forth kept it a two-point set until a kill by Acker and block by Kinslow knotted the game at 17.
 
Belton finished the set on an 8-4 run to win knot the match at 1-1.
 
The team kept it close in set three until the Lady Dawgs mustered a small advantage led by three points from Kinslow on a kill from the front row, an ace and a kill from the back row.
 
Cove pushed their lead to 20-11, highlighted by kills from Acker and Kinslow, before an 8-3 run cut the lead to four, 23-19. Shots by sophomore Kamyrn Madden and senior Chloe Bush led the way for Belton.
 
A push by Acker and a Belton error close the set for Cove, 25-19.
 
Belton again shot out to an early lead in the fourth set with a 9-1 advantage. Kills by junior Jamie Janczak and Madden, paired with blocks by Harris, paced the Lady Tigers.
 
A kill by Kinslow jump-started a 15-7 Cove run that knotted the set at 16.
 
Three-straight Cove miscues allowed Belton to pull ahead again to stay. Kills by Kinslow and Acker pulled Cove back within one but a Cove player in the net closed the set and knotted the match at 2-all.
 
Chapman had six kills to follow Kinslow’s 21 and Acker’s 19. She also tied for a team-high seven blocks with senior Dazsa Braddock. Senior Madison Wasiak had a game-high 62 digs and Carlisle had 56 assists.
 
Lowery knows that with a big match coming up against Midway on Oct. 18 and the playoffs looming, a game like this was invaluable for her team’s growth.
 
“It’s great because as a young team, an inexperienced team or a team in a whole new rotation and a new player on the floor; we could have understandably lost in three,” she said. “They stepped up and kept going. People were covering each other in different positions and they were running threw balls. We’ve been working on that stuff and I’m really proud of them.
 
“A game like this is one that might change something for you down the road because if you have to dig in, you know you can now.”
 
That road may be really close when they host the no. 1 ranked Pantherettes on Tuesday for First Responders Appreciation Night at Bulldawg Gymnasium.
 
““We’re pretty calm,” she said. “They don’t get in their head that it’s Midway. We never play well at Midway but we always seem to play them better at home. We take it like it’s one more game. On paper, they should beat us because they are a senior team with five Division I players and they got that new setter and she’s a great setter. It’s not about beating Midway. That’s not the ultimate goal of our season. We want to get better and keep playing longer and longer.”
 

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