Lady Bears begin district play with win

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  • Lady Bears begin district play with win
    Lady Bears begin district play with win
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Raine leads with 12 digs

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BOGATA- The Sulphur Bluff Lady Bears traveled to Bogata Friday to take on Rivercrest in their district opener. The Lady Bears entered the game with a ton of momentum, riding a five-game winning streak.

Looking to push their winning streak to six games, the Lady Bears opened the game with a strong first set. In their winning streak Sulphur Bluff hadn’t lost a single set, and Friday was no different as they took the opening set by a final score of 25-16.

The second set was their closest of the night, as it looked like their streak could come to an end. Although it took extra time, the Lady Bears held on and won by a score of 26-24. The third and final set was very close as well, but Sulphur Bluff completed the three-set sweep win a 25-21 win.

Skylar Stanley led the way for the Lady Bears, finishing with 11 kills. She also had four of Sulphur Bluff ’s five blocks in the match. This was yet another impressive performance for Stanley, as she was coming off a 17-kill game in their last win against Dodd City.

Kaitlyn Brock set things up for Sulphur Bluff, recording 25 of the teams 27 assists. She also had five digs and a team-high 10 aces. In her last match she led the team with 25 assists and seven aces.

Defensively it was Tori Raine who led the way for the Lady Bears with 12 digs. Raine also had eight kills and a pair of aces, each of which were improvements from their last outing.

Taylor Wallis was right behind her with eight digs of her own, as well as six aces. Wallis was coming off a 14-dig showing and continued her strong play in the 3-0 win.

Other notables were Allie Eason and Lydia Drummond who had five kills and four kills respectively. Eason also had a pair of aces, while Drummond had six digs and four aces.

Dacie Howse had a pair of kills, one block and one dig, while Jasmin Wade had one kill.

“I always enjoy playing Rivercrest because it’s usually always a really good match,” coach Lacie Jessup said. “The Lady Bears served very aggressively through the entire game. This allowed us to play solid defense and transition into an aggressive offense.

“I’m very proud of the way the girls played to start district play,” Jessup added. “They’ve shown a lot of maturity throughout the preseason, so I’m very excited to watch them grow this season.”

After a number of road games, the Lady Bears will get the chance to return home Friday to face Maud. The varsity is set to begin at 4:30 p.m. with the junior varsity to follow. Coverage of their Tuesday match against Clarksville will be published in Saturday’s edition of the News-Telegram.