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Lady Deer drop tough match at home
Lady Deer volleyball head coach Gay Sabatell has been in the game long enough to know how to ride the ups and downs. Still, Friday's three-games-to-two loss to Pearland Dawson at home was tough to swallow.
"We had our chances. We even had a chance to go up 2-0 near the end of the second game and couldn't put them away," she said after the 25-19, 25-27, 25-20, 20-25 and 12-15 loss. "We had some unforced errors on our end that killed us."
Deer Park (7-8) grabbed an early lead in the opening set, before falling behind 9-10. Both squads battled to take control before the Lady Deer wrestled away the lead at 16-15 and never looked back to win the game 25-19.
The second match was very much like the first, with Deer Park leading until the Lady Eagles (18-5), took the lead at 9-10. Deer Park did not lead again until 20-19 and had Dawson on the ropes with the game point at 24-22. However the Lady Deer could not close out the game and Dawson took advantage, scoring five of the next six points to win 25-27.
The teams continued their frantic back-and-fourth pace in the third game that saw five lead changes within the first 14 points. After taking an 8-7 lead, the Lady Deer never trailed again in the third game en route to a 25-20 victory.
As the second game mimicked the first, the fourth game of the match mirrored the third with several early lead changes. Unfortunately for Deer Park, Pearland Dawson was able to keep its lead halfway through to take a 20-25 win and force a decisive fifth game of the match.
Deer Park took several early leads, only to be answered by Dawson several times. Deer Park led at one point 8-5, but that would be its biggest lead of the night before the Lady Eagles reeled off 10 of the last 14 points to seal the victory.
"Defensively, we got more involved and that's always a plus," Sabatell. "We have to get it in our heads that we are there. We are so close. We had some service errors, especially in that fourth game. We've been pounding that in practice about serving for points."
Throughout the season Sabatell said the Lady Deer have relied on the team playing with good chemistry and unison. "There's really no superstars on our team. We are even. We are just us. We get along great and play well together. Everyone on our team steps up," she said.
Deer Park's next match is tomorrow evening at 6:30 p.m. at North Campus when the Lady Deer host Eisenhower.