Ozen takes down Lady Bears in 4

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Ozen takes down Lady Bears in 4

Van Wade

The Orange Leader

LITTLE CYPRESS — In a match that had almost a playoff atmosphere to it, the Beaumont Ozen Lady Panthers just proved to have a little more “hops†and “leaps†than the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Lady Bears at the Bear Cave Tuesday night.

The towering front line of Jamie Brazil and Alexis Brannon and the power of Jasmine Wells and Tiara Robinson led the Lady Panthers to an early important 25-20, 26-24, 23-25, 25-18 District 22-4A victory against the Lady Bears.

After game was fairly tight, but bad early starts in both Game One and Game Two spelled trouble for the Lady Bears (11-12, 1-2).

Wells dominated at the net for the Lady Panthers (16-5, 2-1), putting together 16 kills and four blocks. Robinson found her way to 12 kills while Brannon and Brazil teamed up for 12 kills and 10 blocks as both teams performed well at the net.

“Ozen not only has tremendous height, they have outstanding athletes,†said long-time Lady Bear head coach Vicki Castino. “They can really get up in the air. I was also impressive with the way they played defense. They dug the ball well tonight and they took every shot that we had at them. It was a very tough match with close games and I’m proud of the way our kids played.â€

Senior Jordyn Davis had one of her better games of the season for LC-M by posting a team-high 13 kills. Sophomore Christine Sicktich added 12 kills. Senior Morgan Blohm notched eight kills and Elissa Tate played well off the bench by nabbing six kills.

The Lady Bears got behind 10-3 in Game One and were able to get as close as 24-20 before Ozen snagged the last point.

LC-M dug itself into a 9-4 deficit early in Game Two. Behind Wells’ big hits, Ozen went up 24-19 late. The Lady Bears scrapped back with the next five points behind nice serving by Alexa Humble to eventhings up at 24-24. However, the Lady Panthers received a critical kill shot by Sheena Wingate, who also had eight kills, and then Wells closed it out with an ace.

The Lady Bears looked as if they were going to roll through Game Three unscathed, darting out to a 9-1 lead behind a strong effort by Davis and Blohm. The Lady Panthers wouldn’t go away though. Trailing 23-19, Ozen tacked on four straight points to knot the score but the Lady Bears got a kill by Sicktich and LC-M took advantage of an Ozen miscue to snare the game.

Game Four was tight early on but it was the net play of Brannon and Brazil that pushed the Lady Panthers to the victory. The duo combined for four late kills and five blocks to give the Lady Panthers a 21-14 cushion and they basically maintained that seven-point lead to salvage the match.

“It just seemed like they were blocking everything there for awhile,†Castino said. “We hit the ball hard too, they (Ozen) just made a few more big plays here and there and that was the difference.â€

In the service game, Blohm and Carly Gauthier served up 10 points and two aces apiece for the Lady Bears. Humble had nine points and three aces and Sicktich added eight points and three aces.

For Ozen, Somalia Randle poured out 13 points and three aces. Wingate had 11 points and Brittany Moore added nine.

The Lady Bears will look to bounce back Friday in 22-4A play when they take a nice road trip to Dayton.

“I know the kids would’ve loved to win tonight’s match but it doesn’t make us or break us,†Castino. “This district still has a long way to go. We’ve got 11 matches left in what should be a district race that will go down to the wire and we plan on being right in the thick of it.â€