The Lady Cats’ volleyball team captured the championship in the Bronze Bracket at the Tyler ISD Volleyball Tournament with three wins Saturday. To win the title, the Lady Cats had to win tough back to back matches just to qualify for the championship game. The Lady Cats opened play Saturday with a 2-0 win over Brownsboro by the score of 25-17 and 25-18. The Lady Cats never trailed in either match and jumped out to an 11-2 lead in set one and an 8-3 lead in set two. Madi Vickery had 8 kills in the match including 6 in set one. Autumn Tanton had 6 kills with 4 in the second set. Sadie Washburn and Abbi Baier had 4 kills each. Lexi Whisenhunt had 1. The second match of the back to backs was against an athletic John Tyler team. The Lady Cats would probably tell you they let the first set get away from them against the Lady Lions. The Lady Cats had leads of 21-15 and 23-19 but the Lady Lions were able to tie the score. The match went back and forth from there but John Tyler prevailed, 29-27. The Lady Cats were showing signs of fatigue and they were making an uncharacteristic number of unforced errors. Still they rallied to take the next two sets from the Lady Lions to take the match, 2-1. The Lady Cats saw John Tyler also almost rally all the way back from a 24-20 deficit in set two but the Lady Cats held on for a 25-23 win. In the decisive set, the Lady Cats and Lady Lions were tied at 18-18 but the Lady Cats won the battle down the stretch outscoring the Lady Lions 7-2 to take the set, 25-20. The Lady Cats got big kill totals at the net from Tanton, Baier, Sadie Washburn and Sydney Washburn. Whisenhunt and Vickery also recorded some kills. The tournament schedule then turned favorable for the Lady Cats. After their back to back sets, the Lady Cats were able to rest for over an hour before meeting All Saints Episcopal School in the Bronze Bracket final. The Lady Trojans played the Lady Cats right after completion of a grueling three-set win against Elysian Fields. The revived Lady Cats won handily, 2-0 by the score of 25-11 and 25-13. Tanton had a very strong match in the final. Her kills produced the first three Lady Cats’ points in set one and they raced out to a 9-3 lead. Tanton had 9 kills in the first set. Others with kills during the match included Baier, Vickery and Sydney and Sadie Washburn. With the wins, the Lady Cats hit the 20 win mark for the season. They are now 20-4 and they have won five matches since their Thursday tournament loss to White Oak. The Lady Cats took five of six matches in the Tyler ISD Tournament. They also topped Caddo Mills on the road Friday night. The Lady Cats play next at home as they host Paris in Wildcat Gym Tuesday night. There will be a freshman game at 4:30 p.m. followed by a JV contest at 5:30 p.m. and then the varsity match at 6:30 p.m.
