|
|
|
|
The Lady Vipers opened with a 25-17, 19-25, 25-23, 25-11 win over Moody and then held off El Campo 17-25, 25-20, 25-17, 26-24.
“We saw some good things out of both matches,” Lady Vipers coach Irma Gomez said. “The girls hung in and never got down.”
Against El Campo, the Lady Vipers jumped out quickly in the fourth game of the match with a 3-0 lead, but the lady Birds were not ready to roll over and give in.
The game was close the entire way and El Campo looked to be set to force a fifth and deciding game.
With Kendra Legler at the service line, the Lady Birds went up 23-22 with the help of a kill from Meredith Bard and an unforced Lady Vipers error. But a net violation forced a sideout with the score even at 23.
Katie Lytle slammed down one of her nine kills in the match for a 24-23 lead, but Aubrey Flores’ next serve found the net for a sideout.
Samantha Alvarez answered with one of her 12 kills to give the Lady Vipers the ball back. From there, Ashley Brooks’ dink attempt caught the top of the net and fell to the floor, giving the Lady Vipers the match.
“It’s always tough when the game is right on the brink because it could go either way and you sure don’t want to have to go to that Game 5,” Gomez said. “This was a real good test for us.”
El Campo took advantage of 11 unforced Memorial errors and six kills from Bard to win the opening game, but struggled from that point.
The Lady Ricebirds had 13 unforced errors in the second game and never really got into the match, especially after the Lady Vipers went up 15-7 with Sydney Kuecker serving.
El Campo held the early advantage in the third game until three unforced errors put the Lady Vipers up for good at 13-10.
Despite the loss to Memorial, the Lady Ricebirds managed to even their record at 1-1 with a 22-25, 25-19, 25-15, 26-24 win over Moody.