sticky Posted September 13, 2006 Report Posted September 13, 2006 BH outlasts Crosby By Michael Pineda Baytown Sun Published September 13, 2006 The first course in what is to be a double dose of Barbers Hill and Crosby turned out to be quite a ride. The District 21-4A favorites went the distance Tuesday night with the Eagles taking the win at home, 25-14, 24-26, 25-15, 24-26, 15-7. The victory ended a two-game losing streak for Barbers Hill as they improved to 18-7, 3-0 on the year. The game also marked BH head coach John Leonard’s return to the sideline after missing five games last week due to illness. “We have been in these games before,†Leonard said. “We talked about it being a defining moment in the season for us and to me it was. We are the two best teams in the district. One loss wasn’t going to hurt us but you don’t want to lose at home. “It was a good job by Crosby. It could have gone either way in the fifth game.†Experience played a part in the crucial fifth game as the battle-tested Eagle team dominated. A mishit pulled the Lady Cougars to within two points at 7-5 but a four point run by Barbers Hill lifted the lead to 11-5 allowing the home team to pull away and finish off a savvy Crosby bunch. “We haven’t played a fifth game this year,†CHS head coach Stephanie Cone said. “We’ve never seen what we could do at the end of a match. We saw some good things and we saw some bad things. I’m just disappointed at some of the decisions on the court. You hate to lose but we lost to a good team.†Crosby entered the fifth game with momentum after coming back from a 24-22 deficit to score four straight points to take the win in game four. Crosby led late in the game 20-16 but a 5-0 run by Barbers Hill gave the Eagles a 21-20 lead. Cone called a timeout in the run as well as one with the Lady Cougars trailing 23-21 in an effort to rally the team. Following the last timeout Crosby scored five of the last six points in the game. Barbers Hill came out of the gate on fire easily winning the first game of the match by 11 points. The Eagles also had little problem winning the third game as well. In the first game Barbers Hill broke open an 6-6 deadlock with a 9-0 run. Keely Rivera had two kills and Courtney Johnson added an ace as they took the 15-6 lead. Crosby closed to within 19-14 on a Lacy Bates ace. The Eagles closed the game out from there scoring the last six points, three of which came on Brittany Connally kills. The second game proved to be much closer as the Lady Cougars took control midway through the match and held off a late Barbers Hill rally for the win. The Eagles took an early 9-4 lead and it appeared as if the Eagles were going to dominate the match. Brittany Hoag led the Lady Cougars back to tie the game at nine with three aces. A Lindsey Bates kill late in the match gave Crosby game point at 24-18 only to see the Eagles storm back to tie the game at 24. Lacy Bates had a block to give Crosby the lead back and a ball hit into the net gave the Lady Cougars the win. “We knew this wasn’t going to be easy,†Leonard said. “Stephanie is a good coach and they made some adjustments and we missed some serves. We made a run but it came to late.†The third game was much like the first in that Barbers Hill took control of the game midway to cruise to a win. “I don’t feel like we were intimidated,†Cone said. “We just didn’t have the experience. Other than this weekend this was the toughest team that we have faced this year.†Keely Rivera led Barbers Hill with 14 kills. Brittany Hoag led Crosby with 20 kills and four aces on the night. The loss dropped the Lady Cougars to 14-5 on the year and 2-1 in district.
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