Lady Hawks just miss undefeated 5-3A season, and still win title outright
Iowa Park’s Lady Hawk volleyball team captured the District 6-3A title outright Friday in Wichita Falls with a convincing win over Hirschi, but their attempt at an unbeaten conference record ended Tuesday in the final regular season game at Decatur.

After earning the gold ball Friday with a 25-6, 25-13, 25-10 win over the Lady Huskies, Iowa Park took to the road again Tuesday to Decatur, where the Lady Eagles avenged an earlier loss to the Lady Hawks with a 25-10, 26-24, 25-22 win.

That win earned Decatur second place in 5-3A with an 8-2 conference record, while the Lady Hawks ended with a 9-1 record, and 28-5 going into next week’s area round of the 3A state playoffs.

Bridgeport finished in third place at 7-3, and advances to the area playoffs.

And this year’s Region 1-3A playoff road is twice as tough as the previous year.

With the new re-alignment of 3A schools, teams from Districts 7 and 8 are included in the regional mix, and three of the top 25 teams in the state, including last year’s state champ, Wimberly.

Decatur has already landed Wimberly (ranked fourth this year in 3A) as their 1-3A Area opponent. Bridgeport will face the state’s 10th-ranked Gatesville squad.

Iowa Park, meanwhile will face the winner of the Glen Rose/West vs. Burnet contest, with Burnet finishing second to Wimberly in District 8-3A.

That game will be played between Nov. 6 - 8, with Lady Hawk Coach Brenda Hodges indicating Thursday as her preference.

REGULAR SEASON
“We’ve had a tremendous season so far,” said Hodges of the outright district title and 28 wins. Our freshman,JV, and varsity record in district overall was 24-4. It was a great year all around. It speaks highly of our program. It says we have good stuff coming, too.”

Asked about her team’s reaction to their only district loss, Hodges said, “It does kind of put a damper on things. That was one of our goals. We had decided we’d be 10-0. When that doesn’t happen, it kind of deflates you a little bit. but like I said, it is over and done with. We start a new season with the playoffs.”

WARMUP GAME
Hodges has scheduled her team to play Windthorst at 3:45 p.m. tomorrow in Hawk Gym as the only warmup game prior to the area playoffs. And it will be a tough test, as the Lady Trojans are again ranked in the top five of Class A and sporting a 30-win record.

“We need to get ourselves up for windthorst and play a good game,” Hodges said. “They just blew Bowie out of the water (Tuesday’s three-game win over the District 5-2A champs).”

Acknowledging that Region 1-3A has gotten tougher top to bottom in 2008, Hodges said, “That’s why we are playing Windthorst. You really want to win a warmup game, but in this instance, if we just go out and play a good game against a good team, it will be good for us. From here on out, the teams in the playoffs are going to be as good as us. We’ll have to step up to the plate and overcome that. Nothing from here on out will be a cake walk.”

HIRSCHI GAME
“Our passing was 86-percent, which is wonderful, and we only missed two serves in the match,” said Hodges of the win over Hirschi Friday. Savanna Braziel led Iowa Park with 10 kills, followed by Amanda Fuhrman with four, and Presley Gann three. China Pruitt was 14-for-14 serving, while Fuhrman hit on all 10 of her serves.

DECATUR GAME
“Obviously, they handed our tails to us on a silver platter Tuesday night,” Hodges said of Decatur’s win over Iowa Park in the final 5-3A game of the season.

The Lady Eagles sprung out to an early lead with a 25-10 first game win. According to Hodges, the Lady Hawks began to respond about midway through the second game, but still fell 24-26. Decatur carried the momentum into the third game, winning 25-22 to take the win.

Asked what the difference was for her Lady Hawks from the first match at home against Decatur (won convincingly by Iowa Park), Hodges said, “The difference was, we didn’t show up to play. When they came here, we did everything perfect. When we went there, we did everything wrong.

“That’s just volleyball,” she continued. “As a coach you don’t have any control what’s going to happen once you turn them onto the court. It was just flat out ugly.”

In addition to the loss, sophomore setter Shelbye Boren suffered a severe jammed finger on her right hand, affecting her play in the second and third games. “She toughed it out, and did a pretty good job working through the pain,” said Hodges. “I was proud of her for that.”

“It was senior night for them (Decatur),” said Hodges. “They had this opportunity to screw up our perfect record. We were at their place, which is always hard to play at. It was a hard situation to go into.

“But if we have to have a bad game, that was the time to do it,” she noted. “Because it didn’t hurt anything but our pride. Maybe it woke us up a little.”

Digging was the highlight of the night for the Lady Hawks, with Gann leading with 17, Braziel 8, Megan Walls 13, and Boren five.

“We were digging fools, but we couldn’t do anything else right,” said Hodges, adding, “Presley’s 17 digs ... that’s unheard of.”

Braziel added five blocks, Gann four, and Boren and Whitney James with one each.

Braziel led in hitting with 14 kills, Gann eight, Boren and Alex Newman three each, and Amanda Fuhrman one.
The Lady Hawks missed four serves in the match.