BANGS – Presented with an opportunity to create a three-way tie atop the District 5-2A volleyball standings at the midway point of their league slate, the Bangs Lady Dragons instead suffered a gut-wrenching five-set home loss to the Hamilton Lady Dogs Tuesday.
After dropping the first set, the Lady Dragons rallied to take the next two, but Hamilton wouldn’t go away as it extended the match to a tie-breaking fifth set, then clawed back late to steal the victory 25-16, 22-25, 21-25, 25-17, 15-13.
Bangs (15-15, 2-2) opened up a 13-11 lead in the final set, and never trailed at any point in the tiebreaker until Hamilton (16-16, 3-0) reeled off the last four points in succession, and in an instant the Lady Dragons fell two games back of the district leader when it was on the verge of being tied with both Hamilton and Hico (2-1 in district) – which had defeated the Lady Dragons earlier in district but fell to the Lady Dogs.
Neeley Bradley paced the Bangs attack with 19 kills followed by Kasey Solis with 10, Ava Boren with eight, Ashlynn Sliger with six, Cameryn Harmon with four, and Dyan McCurdy with three.
Bradley also distributed 26 assists while Boren added 16 and Harmon and McCurdy were each credited with one.
Bradley also served a team-high four aces trailed by Cloey Petty with a pair and Solis and Julianna Ethridge with one apiece.
Defensively, Ethridge logged 25 digs along with 13 from Petty, 11 from Boren, 10 from Bradley, seven from Justice Baker, five from Solis, four from McCurdy, three from Harmon, and two each from Sliger and Kylee Byler.
At the net, Harmon tallied six blocks followed by Solis with five, Sliger with three and Bradley with a pair.
The Lady Dragons are off this weekend and begin the second half of 5-2A action at Coleman on Tuesday, Oct. 15.
