The Georgia Northwestern Lady Bobcats were a little short-handed
on Monday night and, as a result, the Navy-and-Silver saw the 2014
campaign come to a close at the hands of the Bryan College JV squad
in a match played at the Rossville Athletic Center.
Forced to go into the match with just one available
substitution, the Lady Bobcats battled a deep bench from the Lady
Lions, who also enjoyed a significant height advantage, especially
along the front row.
Bryan led 10-7 in the first set, but reeled off 10 consecutive
points to take a commanding lead and ultimately a 25-14 victory.
The second set was a similar story as the Lady Lions led 13-12
before taking control with six straight points, en route to another
25-14 win.
Georgia Northwestern showed their grit in the third set,
staying with two or three points of the lead for much of the set.
But Bryan would get the final two points to win 25-22 and claim the
win.
Missed serves were also a factor as the Lady Bobcats had a dozen
on the night.
“Being down three players definitely changed some
things, but it’s ok,” said head coach Carrie Powell.
“We made it work and things went smoothly nonetheless.
We’re weren’t able to pull out a win, but I’m
still very proud of the girls. We had some good moments and bad
moments tonight, but overall we did ok.”
Casey Chapman had six kills and an assist in the loss. Mikiah
Treece picked up five kills to go with two blocks, an ace and 10
digs. Sabrina Garcia finished with three kills, and ace and tied
Treece for the team lead with 10 digs.
Ashley Bradley had five digs, four assists, an ace and a kill.
Rachel McGill collected two assists, two digs and a block. Holly
Mount had one ace, one kill and four digs, while Sara Birge
finished with seven digs and an ace.
It was also the final match for the Lady Bobcats’ three
sophomores.
“Overall, the program is much better now than it was a
couple of years ago and our sophomores are a big part of
that,” Powell explained. “I’m going to miss them
dearly. Rachel is so dependable at setter and she’ll be hard
to replace. Holly’s our big girl in the middle and
she’s such a great hitter and Casey is just a great
all-around player. It’s going to be so hard to replace all
three of them.
“We’ve got a lot of back row players returning, so
I’ll definitely be looking for some new hitters and maybe
another setter going forward for next year.”
The Lady Bobcats finished the season with a 5-8 overall
record.