Lady Dawgs fall to fourth in Friday tiebreaker with Belton, Ellison

By TJ MAXWELL
Cove Leader-Press

The worst-case scenario became a reality for the Copperas Cove Lady Dawgs’ volleyball team on Friday in their seeding tiebreaker held Friday night at Harker Heights High School.
After the Eagles won a coin flip making their run to a second-place finish easier needing just one win to take the second seed into the playoffs setting up an opening clash between Belton and Copperas Cove.
The Lady Dawgs fell to the Belton Lady Tigers in three sets (25-22, 25-15, 25-23) to set up a battle between the Ellison Lady Eagles and Lady Tigers. 
The Lady Dawgs had just completed their season sweep over the Lady Tigers in a 3-2 battle on the road just three days after avenging their first-round loss to Ellison with a sweep on the road at Ellison.
That magic faded on Friday as the Lady Dawgs were relegated to cheerleaders with the loss to the Lady Tigers hoping for an Ellison loss to give them another chance on Saturday.
The Lady Eagles lost the first set of their match with Belton 25-23 before rebounding to take the final three sets (25-23, 25-18, 25-20), securing the second spot putting Belton in the third spot and Copperas Cove in the final playoff seed where they faced 11-6A District Champions Mansfield (32-15 overall, 14-0 in District 11-6A).
District 12-6A Champions Bryan (30-9, 13-1) will face fourth-place Desoto (27-10-3, 8-6) tonight and third-place Belton (22-18, 11-5) will face 11-6A second seed Waxahachie (31-16, 11-3) tonight in Glen Rose. Both games are set for 6:30 p.m. first serves.
The Ellison Lady Eagles 21-15, 11-4) played Midway (25-19, 10-4) last night in Lorena and the Lady Dawgs faced off with Mansfield at Waco Robinson High School with both matches having 6:30 p.m. first serves. (results not known as of press time Monday). Look for full results of the match in Friday’s Copperas Cove Leader-Press.
The Lady Tigers’s offensive attack is led by a pair of seniors in Ava Roberts with a team-high 588 kills and Brynn Williams with 529 kills with senior setter Meadow Smith setting up that offense with 730 assists followed by sophomore Rachel Resta with 615 assists.
Leading the front-line defense for Mansfield is junior Tyla Perry with 91 blocks and sophomore Lauren Demuth with 78.
The back-line defense is led by Williams with 470 with Roberts coming in second with 398. Roberts also leads in aces with 51 with Williams adding 41.
Senior Kyra Gaston leads the Lady Dawgs with 397 kills with senior Jiya Edwards (369), senior Jamesia Moody (194), and sophomore Larisa Perez (133). Junior Jakhi Smith leads the offense in assists with 1,045 with junior Alanna Hairston chipping in 193.
Gatson also leads the front-line defense with 271 blocks with Moody (105) and freshman Chloe Tuiasosopo (60) rounding out the top three.
Leading the back-line defense is senior Emma Wasiak with 845 digs, followed by Edwards (424), Perez (350) and Smith (228). Wasiak also leads in aces with 46, followed by Gaston (42), Smith (40) and junior Leila Cooks (37).