‘Tons’ no fun for OC spikers

For the Record

The 2016 volleyball playoffs ended for two Orange County teams last week with losses to “ton” teams.

First, Huntington knocked out Bridge City 3 sets to 2 in bidistrict Nov. 1 and Tarkington was a four-set winner over Little Cypress-Mauriceville in the area round on Nov. 3.

LC-M, 29-15 overall, tied Silsbee for the District 12-4A title at 9-1.

“We had a great season working as a team and accomplishing goals all the while being heavily supported by some great fans,” coach Cammie Palmer said.

The coach sees a big future for the Lady Bears, who graduate only three seniors.

“I’m very proud of the team and all that they accomplished by working together,” Palmer said. “They worked hard. When being a team and hard work are capitalized upon, great things happen. I’m very proud to be a Lady Bear.”

Stats for LC-M against Tarkington were Renna Toomey, six kills, 14 digs; Kayla Dominguez, 26 assists, eight digs; Kaitlin Avery, seven kills, 16 digs, one block; Rayley Broussard, one kill, two assists, one dig; Ally White, six kills, six digs, eight blocks; Berkley Dobranski, two kills, two aces, 10 digs, three blocks; Madison Taggart, six kills, two aces, four digs, three blocks; Isa Weizenegger, one assist, one dig; and McCartney Miller, 11 digs.

The Lady Bears swept Jasper 3 sets to zero in bidistrict Nov. 1.

Taggart had seven kills and seven blocks. White had six kills, four blocks and nine digs, the latter matched by teammate Toomey. Broussard had 16 assists.

Bridge City was another young team in 2016 that impressed its coach with its strong finish.

“I knew the season would consist of many growing pains due to youth and very little varsity experience,” coach Becca Peveto said. “But I always believed we could ‘find a way or make one.’

“After the first round of district, we were sitting in fifth place, but we wound up representing district 22-4A as the third-place team.”

The Cardinals were two points away from a four-set loss to Huntington when the BC players rallied to take the fourth set 25-23.

“Never mind that we lost the match, the desire and determination displayed through that fourth game and the entire 2016 season truly sums up the amount of heart and desire this team has,” Peveto said.

Against Huntington, Reyna Owens led BC with 18 kills and Madison Caraway chipped in 14. Triniti Willis had 19 assists and Hannah Wiegreffe 16. Abby Faulk had 19 digs, Willis 15 and Aleah McClanahan 11. Hope Hill was a perfect 23-for-23 on serve receive and Wills had a team-high three aces.