Palo Duro falls to Plainview in four sets in District 3-5A matchup

Shawn Moran, Amarillo Globe-News
·3 min read

HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL

DISTRICT 3-5A

PLAINVIEW DEF. PALO DURO 25-18, 25-18, 24-26, 25-18

The Plainview Lady Bulldogs fought hard and earned their first district win of the season with a four-set victory over the hometown Palo Duro Lady Dons.

What this match means: Palo Duro (0-3) has yet to win a match in District 3-5A this season after falling to Amarillo High, Tascosa and Plainview in the last week. The Lady Dons did show strong fight in the third set to extend the match and at times were clicking on all cylinders. There will be some positives for Lady Dons coach Anslee Jefferies to take into the next few practices before Saturday. Palo Duro currently sits solely in last-place of the district standings and will need to pick up a win soon. The Plainview Lady Bulldogs (1-2) rebounded from losses to Tascosa and Caprock on Tuesday night to earn their first District 3-5A win.

Tuesday's highlights: After dropping the first two sets, the Lady Dons used a strong team effort to control the third set and extend the match. There were several long rallies that energized the crowd as well as some debilitating kills that sent shockwaves through the gym.

Tuesday's stars: Plainview middle blocker Jacey Loudder brought an intimidating presence to the Lady Bulldogs' frontline and dominated with a flurry of kills and blocks that made things difficult on the Lady Dons. Palo Duro senior middle blocker Precious Johnson (13) and sophomore outside hitter Syvihanna Sutton (11) combined for 24 kills to lead the blue and white. Johnson added a team-high seven blocks at the net while Sutton was second on the squad in digs (8) behind strong defensive junior setter Erin Mims.

Palo Duro coach Anslee Jefferies on team's performance: "We started off really slow. We made a lot of ball-handling errors in the first and second set. When we came alive in the third set it was just too late. If we can clean up some of those then I really think that we have a good shot for the rest of district play."

Jefferies on positives to takeaway from the loss: "Coming back after losing the first two sets and winning that third set was huge for us. All-season we haven't really been a third set team so coming back and winning that was great to see. We just have to start out stronger and set the tempo. We just have to learn to capitalize on a lot more stuff."

Plainview coach Amanda Martin on win: "We were definitely hungry for a district win. We had a long battle with Caprock the other day that went five and we wanted to come out here with a better offense than we finished up with on Saturday. Other than game three, I like what we did out there."

Up next: Palo Duro will host Caprock on Saturday afternoon while Plainview is set to host first-place Amarillo High as the district race begins to heat up.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Palo Duro falls to Plainview in four sets in District 3-5A matchup