Lady 'Birds lasso up Lamar Lady 'Stangs
By KRIS BAGLEY sports@leader-news.com

El Campo hosted Lamar Consolidated Tuesday as the Lady 'Birds' volleyball season approached its end.

Though eliminated from the playoffs, the Lady 'Birds showed their pride and defeated Lamar in four games. El Campo will attempt to stop Bay City Friday in their last match of the year.

The Lady Mustangs played El Campo tough throughout the match, but it was the Lady 'Birds who came out victoriously despite dropping the first game.

Lamar Consolidated stayed close with El Campo in the first game as the two teams traded scores frequently.

The Lady 'Birds rallied early and took an 11-10 lead only to watch as Lamar came back to score 3 straight points.

El Campo tied the game once more at 16-16, but Lamar pulled away again.

Down 16-19, the Lady 'Birds took control at 19-17 and started a short run. An ace by Ashley Zboril brought the score to 19-18. One more point tied up the game and forced a Lamar time-out.

The Lady Mustangs moved ahead after the teams got back out on the court and eventually won the game 26-24.

Game two was the start of El Campo's comeback.

The first five points went to Lamar and put the Lady 'Birds in a big hole. The Lady Mustangs had the lead until they needed 2 points to win the game.

At 23-21, El Campo began climbing back with intensity.

Shelby Cooper made a nice kill to cut Lamar's lead to 23-22 and a block out of bounds tied up the game at 23-23.

Lamar called another timeout after the point, but this time there would be no Lady Mustang rally. This game was all El Campo now.

Stephanie Korenek served up an ace to give the Lady 'Birds their first lead of the night at 2423. Cooper made the final point on a block at the net that hit the floor. El Campo won 25-23. From then on, the match was hardly in question. The Lady 'Birds won game three 25-20 and game four 25-13 for a 3-1 match win.

Kelsey Gangl made a teamhigh 9 kills. Kaylan Gangl and Meredith Bard both made 8 kills, Jessica Dornak made 7, Cooper made 6 and Zboril made 9 kills.

Kelsey Gangl led El Campo's servers with 22 total points. Kaylan Gangl netted 21 points, Korenek scored 16, Bard scored 15, Kristi Michaelsen scored 9, Ashley Brooks scored 7 and Zboril scored 4 serving points.

Brooks led the Lady 'Birds with 5 aces while Kaylan Gangl served 4 and Kelsey Gangl, Korenek and Bard each served up 2 aces.

Alexis Cooper, in at libero, led El Campo's defense with 10 digs.

Michaelsen made 17 assists on the night.