VIDOR – Fighting hard to the finish the Bridge City Lady Cardinals could not quite overcome a late push by Hardin-Jefferson as the Lady Hawks edged out the Lady Cardinals 25-22, 23-25, 23-25, 25-9, 15-13 in Class 4A Region III area round volleyball playoff action at Pirate Gym at Vidor High School Thursday night.

The Lady Cardinals, who put together a huge win over District 21-4A champion Huntington on Tuesday, and the Lady Hawks battled back and forth throughout the match for the exception of Game Four.
The Lady Cardinals led the decisive Game 5 9-6 only to see it slip away. H-J’s Kassidy Shackleford served up four straight points to put H-J up 10-9.
The Lady Cardinals evened it up at 12-12 after a kill by Peyton Trapp.
Jordan Galle put H-J ahead 14-12 with a big shot but the Lady Cardinals got it to within 14-13 as Rhoni RIchard had a big smash.
The Lady Hawks, however, sealed it when Haley Coleman barely got one over the net that had the Lady Cardinals scrambling as they just couldn’t get the ball back over.
The Lady Hawks will now advance to the Region III quarterfinals, where they will take on Tarkington, which knocked off District 22-4A champion LC-M 14-25, 25-20, 25-14, 25-15 Thursday.
The Lady Cardinals had more kills than the Lady Hawks as Bridge City finished with 60 while H-J had 48. The Lady Hawks did well with their service game throughout the night as they picked up 55 service points to BC’s 41. The Lady Cardinals finished with eight aces while H-J had seven.
Reyna Owens once again had a huge night at the net for the Lady Cardinals, finishing with a team-high 14 kills. Rylee Oceguera notched 12 kills and Rhoni Richard had 11. Peyton Trapp finished with eight kills while Carissa Slaughter had seven and Mikaela Glover six.
Haley Coleman had a dominant night for the Lady Hawks as she piled up a match-high 19 kills. Jordan Galle and Tori Leger had eight apiece while Caroline Spacek had seven.
Shackleford finished with 21 service points and three aces for H-J.
Spacek had 14 points and an ace while Payton Sparks added seven points and two aces.
Triniti Willis posted 11 points and three aces for the Lady Cardinals.
Oceguera had eight points and an ace. Owens contributed eight points while Richard had seven points and three aces and Aleah McClanahan had six points and an ace.
H-J led Game One by as much as 20-13 only to see the Lady Cardinals scrap back to get within 23-22. Game Two was a battle all the way through with the biggest lead by either team was two. Owens came up with the kill that captured the game.
Game Three was tight as well. H-J led 17-13 at one point and 22-19 but the Lady Cardinals reeled off six of the final seven points and a Oceguera kill sealed it.
The Lady Cardinals never got on track in Game Four. H-J led 10-6 and extended it to a 21-6 lead with a 11-0 spurt.