Published: November 05, 2008 11:45 pm      

Navarro ready for challenge

Star hitter Rosenauer’s status still unknown as district tourney looms

Tracy Rosenauer, one of Navarro’s best players, spent part of Wednesday afternoon treating an injury that kept her out of last week’s final regular season game against Panola.

The Lady Dawgs are prepared to play with or without their standout outside hitter when the Region XIV District L Tournament starts Friday in Carthage.

Rosenauer, the 5-9 sophomore from Weimar, said Wednesday that she wants to give it a go when the No. 2-seeded Lady Dawgs play Tyler at 7 p.m. Friday at Panola. But Navarro coach Wally Brooks said it is still unknown whether she will be able to play.

Rosenauer’s absence was noticed in a 23-25, 21-25, 6-25 loss last Thursday at Panola. The last set was the lowest scoring effort in Brooks’ 12 years at Navarro.

“She’s half of our passing game,” Brooks said. “It killed us all night.”

Rosenauer also is one of Navarro’s biggest offensive threats. She was sixth in kills in District L in the latest statistics released Oct. 19, averaging 2.8 kills per set. Teammate Megan Helal was fifth with 2.9 kills per set.

Brooks tried to shift things around against Panola by putting freshman Sarah Owens in Rosenauer’s spot on the left side, and freshman Jessica Martinez in Owens’ spot on the right side, but that move had mixed results, the coach said.

Owens had six kills and Martinez had none in eight chances with two errors.

Brooks said Monday that he thought it would help the Lady Dawgs having four practices without Rosenauer and getting more acclimated to the new lineup.

Now of course Rosenauer could come back, and the worry there could be rust.

“We’ll deal with it whatever happens,” Brooks said.

Whatever the case, Navarro is psyched to get another shot at Tyler. The teams split in the regular season with Tyler sweeping Navarro in three at home, and the Lady Dawgs coming back to win in five at the Wolens Center. Navarro led that match, 2-0, and trailed in the fifth set before rallying.

The winner will likely get nationally-ranked Blinn, which plays Panola at 5 p.m. Friday. The district championship match is slated for 2 p.m. Saturday. The winner of that match advances to Council Bluffs, Iowa for the national tournament.

The Lady Dawgs see no reason why they can’t win twice this weekend.

“If we want it bad enough, we’ll take it,” freshman middle blocker Amanda Lowe said.