VB: Lady Bears come up short at tourney
the net in attempt to block a spike attempt at the Carthage
Tournament Thursday. The Lady Bears fell in their three matches.
(Photo by John Krueger)
CARTHAGE -- The competition was stiff for the Timpson Lady Bears and first-year Head Coach Tori Neugebauer as they tried to continue the pace they set when they opened the season with a 3-2 win over Kennard on Tuesday.
But while being forced to play 'up' in classification all day, their opponents were too much to overcome as Timpson dropped its three matches in pool play by identical 2-0 scores here at Bulldog Gymnasium. The Lady Bears opened play with a 25-17, 25-16 setback to Class 2A Harmony, then dropped a 25-17, 25-16 loss private school Grace Community. THS completed pool play with a 25-16, 25-7 loss to Class 4A Nacogdoches.
There were many larger schools in the tourney. In fact, Timpson was one of only two Class 1A schools in the 20-squad field. Some of the other teams present included Longview, Hemphill, Gilmer and Waskom in Pool A; Whitehouse, Tatum, Henderson and Troup competed in Pool B; Carthage, Elysian Fields, Queen City and West Rusk were in Pool D; and Marshall, the Pine Tree JV, T.K. Gorman and Class 1A Beckville played in Pool E.
Host Carthage and the Pool D teams received a bye on Thursday, as did the Pool E teams as well. The Lady Bulldogs will open play in the tourney on today (Friday), taking on Queen City at 10 a.m., before facing West Rusk at 12-noon and Elysian Fields at 3 p.m. The other Pool D first-round matches include Elysian Fields and West Rusk battling at 11 a.m., Elysian Fields and Queen City squaring off at 1 p.m. and Queen City and West Rusk taking on each other at 2 p.m.
After teams complete pool play, they will begin bracket play on Saturday. Timpson will play at 8 a.m. on the final day, facing Gilmer or Waskom in the Consolation Bracket.
Harmony 2, Timpson 0 -- Timpson gave a valiant effort in the opening setback to Harmony. The Lady Bears fell behind early on in both games, but took advantage of the Harmony errors to keep the match competive, despite falling in straight games.
The Lady Eagles got off to a fast start, posting a 7-0 lead, before Timpson returning starter Tori Fanguy stepped to the line and served four straight points after her teammates broke serve. Fanguy had a pair of aces in the run as the Lady Bears cut the lead to 7-5.
Harmony then inched further ahead, holding a 12-8 lead before Timpson took the serve back. Shelby Sanford dished up four straight from the line to give the Lady Bears a 13-12 advantage and some momentum.
But the Lady Eagles changed the advantage back to their side of the court. After breaking serve with a kill, they rolled off four straight points and finished the game with a 7-1 run to capture the opener, 25-16.
Harmony was able to take a 7-3 lead in Game 2, before Timpson's Brittany McSwain served four straight points as the Lady Bears once again had the momentum and a slim 8-7 advantage.
The squads traded points, with Fanguy recording a kill to tie the score at 10-10 at one point. But once again the Lady Eagles were able to pull away at the end, outscoring Timpson 11-3 to end the match with the 25-17 victory.
"We showed some good signs out there," said Neugebauer during the team's break. "We just need to work on being more consistent. We just couldn't put it all together."
Nacogdoches 2, Timpson 0 -- After giving Grace Community a hard-fought match, Class 4A Nacogdoches was the final match of the day for the Lady Bears after taking an hour break. Timpson once again had trouble finishing its match strong with the Lady Dragons after playing well early on, dropping the match by scores of 25-16, 25-7.
A pair of service errors loomed big for Timpson in the opening game. After breaking serve early on, Sanford suffered a service error and Nacogdoches turned it into an 8-3 lead.
Later, after McSwain had served three points to cut the Nacogdoches lead to 8-7. But a costly error loomed large for the Lady Bears. Shelby Brown added a kill a short time later, but the Lady Dragons went on streaks of 3-0, 6-0, 3-0 and finished the game with a 25-16 win.
Timpson players appeared to run 'out of gas' in the second game as the Lady Dragons had runs of 16-0 and 9-1 to finish the match. McSwain did record a kill to stop one of the runs, but it was too little too late.
"Now I think we'll get to meet some teams that are closer to our competition in bracket play on Saturday," Neugebauer admitted. "But it was good to play the outstanding talent that we did, because it will make us get better."
Timpson now stands at 1-3 on the season.
CARTHAGE VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT
THURSDAY'S RESULTS
Pool C
Harmony 2, Timpson 0 (25-17, 25-16)
Grace Community 2, Timpson 0 (25-17, 25-16)
Nacogdoches 2, Timpson 0 (25-16, 25-7)
Grace Community 2, Nacogdoches 0 (25-0, 25-0)
Nacogdoches 2, Harmony 1 (20-25, 25-23, 25-20)
FRIDAY'S SCHEDULE
Pool D
Carthage vs. Queen City, 10 a.m.
Elysian Fields vs. West Rusk, 11 a.m.
Carthage vs. West Rusk, 12 p.m.
Elysian Fields vs. Queen City, 1 p.m.
Queen City vs. Rusk, 2 p.m.
Carthage vs. Elysian Fields, 3 p.m.