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Lady Eagles reach quarterfinals; Pearland out
Published November 7, 2009
HOUSTON — It took the Pearland Dawson Lady Eagles only 40 minutes to dispose of Houston Washington in the Class 4A Region III area round of the volleyball playoffs.
Dawson (25-18) cruised to a 25-6, 25-5, 25-8 win Friday afternoon at Butler Fieldhouse to advance to the region quarterfinals for the first time in school history. Then again, Dawson is in the playoffs for the first time ever, after the campus’ opening just three years ago.
“I told them, ‘After this set we are going to be quarterfinalist and you need to play as a quarterfinalist team,’” Lady Eagles coach Lori McLaughlin said. “We worked really hard, and we need not take things like this for granted.”
Never challenged in Friday’s game, the Lady Eagles next will face their District 24-4A nemesis, Friendswood.
Dawson started the first game 8-0 until Washington’s Alyse Jones put a stop to the run, 8-1.
But that didn’t slow the Lady Eagles as they outscored Washington (13-7) 17-5 down the stretch. An ace by Mary Johnston gave Dawson a 1-0 lead.
Johnston had four aces in that first game, and Olivia Underwood netted three aces.
The second game was all libero Danielle Sullivan as she took over serve with Dawson leading 9-5. She did not give up serve again, serving the last 16 points with seven aces in the process.
Camryn Kazmierski had three kills, as did Johnston.
Pearland Dawson wrapped up the match, again unchallenged, skidding to a 16-2 lead. Grace Underwood scored the last two points with a hard shot and a tip to clear the road to the quarters.
For Pearland Dawson, Kazmierski finished with nine kills; Katie Haynie had 13 assists; Emily Malloy had four digs; and Grace Underwood five blocks.
Dulles sweeps Pearland:
The Pearland Lady Oilers finally got out of the first round, but Friday night they were swept out of the playoffs by Fort Bend Dulles in the Class 5A Region III area round in Manvel.
Dulles blew by the Lady Oilers, 25-15, 25-19, 25-18, and will continue on to meet Deer Park or Clear Lake in the next round.
For Pearland, it was too much of 5-foot-11 Amy Moyer and 5-foot-10 Sarah Behrens and Mona Reed, all three standouts for the Lady Vikings. Dulles took control of the first game, thanks to the tip drill by Moyer. Pearland couldn’t catch up to those tips that Moyer put firmly over their blockers or to an empty space on the Oiler side. The Lady Vikings took a commanding 18-10 lead and didn’t look back as Behrens put the game away with a shot off the Pearland blockers.
The Lady Oilers again got off to a slow start in the second game, but this time caught up with Dulles (28-11) after being down by as much as six points. With Madison Cabler serving, Pearland gained ground after back-to-back errors by the Lady Vikings, 13-13.
But again there was just too much power on Dulles’ side as Pearland fell behind and could not catch up.
Pearland kept the third game close for the first 26 points, but it trailed a majority of the time. The closest it came was within a point, 13-12, until the Lady Vikings started to pull away. Moyer put the match away on a shot off the Pearland blockers.
The Lady Oilers (25-8) will only lose three seniors off their squad coming into next year.
Joel Luna is the sports editor for The Facts. Contact him at 979-237-0160.
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