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PASADENA – For the second straight season the Bridge City Lady Cardinals find themselves in the Class 4A Region III quarterfinals after they notched a 25-16, 27-25, 25-20 sweep of the El Campo Lady Ricebirds in the area round Thursday night at Pasadena Dobie High School.

The Lady Cardinals (39-5), District 22-4A champions, received a solid test from the Lady Ricebirds (19-22) but they passed with flying colors when they had too.

The Lady Cardinals now move on the face the Huffman Lady Falcons in the regional quarterfinals. Huffman (41-4) swept Sealy 25-14, 25-22, 25-21 Thursday.

It will be a rematch of last year’s regional quarterfinal when Huffman swept Bridge City. The two squads have split matches this season. The Lady Falcons swept the Lady Cardinals in non-district in Bridge City and the Lady Cardinals returned the favor, downing Huffman in two straight games on their way to winning the YMBL Tournament.

Bridge City piled up 40 kills in the big win while El Campo had 28.

The Lady Cardinals also had a great night with their service game, racking up 40 points on their serve, including 11 aces. The Lady Ricebirds finished with 20 points and three aces.

Senior Harlee Tupper powered the Lady Cardinal arsenal with 13 kills. Caryss Carpenter chimed in with nine kills while Demi Carter had eight and Morgan Louvier added seven. Taryn Doiron notched three kills and set up the offense again tremendously.

El Campo had some tough hitters but the Lady Cardinals had a great night digging them up for the most part.

In Game One, the Lady Cardinals popped out to a 14-8 lead. El Campo rallied to get to within 17-14 but Bridge City closed it with a 8-2 spurt.

Game Two was tight pretty much throughout.

The Lady Ricebirds managed to stake an early 8-4 lead but the Lady Cardinals rallied with a 9-3 run to go up 13-11. It was nip-and-tuck the rest of the game. The Lady Cardinals led 24-22 but couldn’t close it early. El Campo rallied back for three straight points to go up 25-24 but the Lady Ricebirds couldn’t close it either as the Lady Cardinals held strong, closing the game out with the final three points.

In Game Three, the Lady Cardinals broke a 11-11 tie with a 8-0 spurt to go up what looked comfortably at 19-11. However, El Campo showed it had fight left as they went on a 8-1 run to trim it to 20-19.

The Lady Cardinals quickly settled down and tallied five of the last six points to put the match away.

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SPLENDORA – The Little Cypress-Mauriceville Lady Bears fell to the Bellville Lady Brahmas 25-19, 25-13, 25-8 in the Class 4A Region III area round Thursday night at Splendora High School.

The Lady Bears, who notched an exciting five-game win over Liberty in bidistrict, finishes the season 23-21 while Bellville improves to 37-8.