Published: August 23, 2008 10:02 pm            

Intense to the end: Lady Dawgs finish Classic with win over

Facing the possibility of going 0-4 in their own tournament, Tracy Rosenauer and her Lady Dawgs’ teammates focused on their intensity.

And staying intense.

That single-mindedness brought on big kills and clutch blocking as the Lady Dawgs closed out the Navarro Classic XI with a 26-24, 25-21, 12-25, 25-22 victory over Temple College in Saturday’s final match at the Wolens Center.

The Lady Dawgs had lost earlier in the day in four sets to North Central College, 19-25, 25-22, 17-25, 27-29. That after getting swept by Lee College and losing a two-set lead to Midland College on Friday.

The Lady Dawgs refused to lose to Temple, and it had a positive impact on their play.

“That would have been terrible [to go winless],” said Rosenauer, one of three sophomores on the roster. “We had to redeem ourselves in our own house.”

Lady Dawgs coach Wally Brooks said it was good to win the final match, but he said he was more pleased with his team’s overall effort for the entire tournament.

They were overmatched by Lee, which went 4-0 for the tournament and earned a Gold medal (Brooks handed out medals since this is an Olympic Year). Midland won a Silver medal with a 3-1 record, but the Lady Dawgs had three chances to close out that match.

Navarro, Temple and North Central all went 1-3 for tournament, so no Bronze medal was handed out. Both matches against those teams were close.

“It’s not like we were going out there and giving away games,” Brooks said. “The only match where we didn’t have a good effort, and I think we were a little awed, was against Lee.”

The Lady Dawgs were geared up early. Rosenauer and freshman Rachel Damron combined for several key blocks. Middle blockers Sarah Owens, a freshman, and Courtney Stover, a sophomore, did a good job on the outside of forcing Temple’s hitters to re-direct their kill attempts.

“Our blocking was big early,” Brooks said. “That was they key. We frustrated their big hitters.”

The Lady Dawgs also brought some power in the first set with 16 kills. Rosenauer had six of them and freshman Amanda Lowe had three.

The Lady Dawgs’ hitting was more spread out in the second set, but it was Owens, from Wortham, who got two key kills to give her team a 20-17 lead. Lowe closed out the second set just like she did the first with a kill.

The Lady Dawgs got out of kilter in the third set, committing 11 errors while getting wiped out, 25-12.

But they rebounded in the decisive set as freshman Megan Helal had three kills early in the game to give the Lady Dawgs a 11-7 lead.

The Lady Dawgs punished Temple in the final points as it was Rosenauer who fittingly put away the match with a kill to the middle of the court.

“She’s our best hitter,” Brooks said. “She showed a lot of leadership out there.”

The Lady Dawgs will get a rematch at Temple on Tuesday. They know they will get a maximum effort from the Lady Leopards.

“They are a tough, powerful squad,” Brooks said. “That should be a tough one.”

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.