KOUNTZE – They fought the No. 3 ranked Class 4A hard in the Class 4A Region III area round of the playoffs but the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Lady Bears did not have quite enough firepower from keeping the Huffman Lady Falcons from their 40th win of the season.
The Lady Longhorns, sparked by their only two seniors – Hope Biggs and Claire Chapman – took down the Lady Bears 25-17, 15-20, 16-25, 25-10 at Kountze High School to advance to the regional quarterfinals.
Biggs and Champman combined for 41 kills to power the District 21-4A champion Lady Falcons (40-6) throughout the night.
The Lady Bears (29-15), District 22-4A co-champions, battled back hard to dominate Game Three to avoid the sweep.
The Lady Longhorns piled up 58 kills while the Lady Bears had 31.
Biggs poured out a match-high 21 kills while Chapman had 20.
Ally White led the Lady Bears with 10 kills while Kaitlyn Avery had eight and Renna Toomey six.
Desiree Higgins and Rebecca Rasberry had six kills apiece for Tarkington.
Marcy Lang led the Lady Longhorns with 12 service points and an ace.
Chapman had nine points and libero Chloe Mullins had eight. Biggs collected six points and three aces while Higgins added six points.
Madison Taggart had seven points and two aces for the Lady Bears.
Senior Berkley Dobranski chimed in with six points and two aces. Kayla Dominguez had six points while Toomey and White had three points apiece.
Game One was tight midway through as the Lady Longhorns led 13-11.
Tarkington went on a 5-0 run to go up 18-11 but the Lady Bears pulled to within 18-14.
The Lady Longhorns ran off four straight points behind the hitting of Biggs to pull away to take the game.
The Lady Bears opened Game Two with a flurry, jumping out to a 8-4 cushion and led by as much as 12-7.
Chapman and Biggs began to warm up though as the Lady Longhorns went on a 11-3 spurt to go up 15-11.
LC-M battled back to get to within 18-17 and 22-20 but Tarkington closed it with the last three points.
LC-M broke away in Game Three, sparked by the hitting of White.
Leading 8-6, LC-M went on a 5-0 tear to go up 13-6. The Lady Longhorns got as close as 16-12 but the Lady Bears held their poise, scoring nine of the final 13 points.
The Lady Longhorns came out smoking in Game Four, scoring the first four points.
The Lady Bears got as close as 9-5 but the Lady Longhorns scored eight of the next nine points to go up 17-6 and they never looked back.
The loss marked the end of a great season for the Lady Bears and Coach Cammie Palmer.
The Lady Bears strolled to a 9-1 District 22-4A mark, tying the Silsbee Lady Tigers as co-champions.
The match also marked the end of solid years in a Lady Bear uniform for seniors Dobranski, Taggart and Hallie Stack.