The Tomball Lady Cougars (29-11, 10-2) arrived at Johnson Coliseum in Huntsville, Tuesday night ready to tangle with their mighty rival: the Lady Bulldogs (33-7, 10-0) from Magnolia - in the Regional Quarterfinals, and looked well prepared to do battle. The DAWGS have had a good season battling some of the biggest names in 5A volleyball, but have always had tough competition from their southern cross-town neighbors. It was an unusual and unlikely setting for these two teams who would've probably settled for a venue more like a back alley, than the Sam Houston State University's home turf. The Coogs, who had finished as the runner-up in District 16-5A then slipped by A&M Consolidated in their Bi-District playoff match, were viewed as the underdogs by most of the volleyball community, and were now facing their rivals who are favored - just 50 some odd miles to the north! This one was shaping up like a couple of 'rural-suburban' gangs squaring off from a courtyard scene in West Side Story, only in this one, everyone's dressed in either spandex, or denim...and, oh yeah, iPods !!!The swift Cougars wasted little time drawing first blood as they caught the Lady Bulldogs uncharacteristically 'flat footed' coming out-of-the-gate and then fought through 13 ties in this first set to earn a well deserved victory.
The Lady Cougars had to comeback in the first set to defeat the Lady
Bulldogs. Here Kelli Stewart and Hannah Fort are rejecting an attack.
The game was tight throughout and Tomball led early in the game by 4 points at 11-7 before the DAWGS opened up their can of 'Whoop-ace', namely one: MB Hannah Fort - who got the DAWGS going in the right direction behind her serving and kills and using teammate Michele Williams' kills to put them on top at 12-11. Magnolia continued to work the score up to a 4 point lead at 24-20 when Tomball clawed their way back with 4 straight points and eventually outlasted the DAWGS to a 27-25 win in set #1.Certainly, the half of the large crowd dressed in maroon sat stunned while the other half (in red and blue) was energized and all probably thought "this couldn't be happening" or "here we go again!!".....
