Published: October 28, 2009 08:17 am      

Ladycats close out district schedule with win

Sally Sexton

sports@weatherforddemocrat.com

The Aledo Ladycats already had the second spot in District 6-4A sewn up. But that still wasn’t enough. The Ladycats outlasted Boswell in five games Tuesday night, 25-21, 19-25, 23-25, 27-25, 15-8, to finish off the regular season. Aledo will move on to play The Colony in the first round of playoff action. Time and location have yet to be determined.

“It’s important to win that last district game to get a little more momentum heading into the playoffs,” said Aledo head coach Kathy Goings. “Our goal was to go undefeated in the second half of district, and we accomplished that.”

Boswell took early leads in the first and second games, before the Ladycats played catch up. After the Lady Pioneers fell behind by six points, back-to-back mishits out of bounds saw Boswell close the gap to 20-16, but it wasn’t enough, and Aledo finished off the job of Game 1, 25-21.

Game 2 was a similar situation, this time with the Ladycats on the short end. Aledo rallied to tie the game at 18-18 after getting down by as many as five points. Boswell took a 21-29 advantage on a bad set from Aledo, before moving on and getting the 25-19 win with a Lady Pioneer kill.

The two teams went head to head in the third game, with the score remaining close throughout. The Lady Pioneers trailed for most of the game, albeit by no more than two points, before tying it at a 20-20 knot on an Aledo mishit, then squeezing by to win, 25-23.

On the brink of a loss, the Ladycats huddled to discuss what changes needed to be made.

"We had some errors that we need to correct and we were able to do that," Goings said. "This has been a learning season overall, and this is a great group of kids."

After holding off Boswell, 27-25, to force a Game 5, Aledo burst out of the gates to go up, 4-0.

The Lady Pioneers would narrow the gap to three points, before Aledo went up, 9-5, following a Tara Gough kill on the net. The play was enough to give the Ladycats all the incentive they would need, as they went on to win, 15-8.

Aledo finishes up district with a 12-2 record, and a 20-10 record overall.