From Staff Reports
Corsicana Daily Sun
Corsicana —
The 10th-ranked Temple Lady Leopards flexed their muscles over Navarro in volleyball action Tuesday, sweeping the Lady Bulldogs at the K. and Ida Wolen Center.
The Lady Leopards jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the first set of the match and didn't step off the gas until they had a 25-18, 25-20 and 25-14 win in hand.
Temple (9-1) has beat No. 7 Blinn, No. 16 Panola and No. 23 Midland twice, with its only loss coming at San Jacinto.
"They're just very skilled at each position," Navarro coach Kristee Porter said. "They go up and they swing. They don't play around, and they hit the ball every single time."
The Lady Bulldogs are still searching for their first win of the season after dropping their sixth straight match.
Sarah Nwiba and Xzanche Mathis led the way for Navarro with eight kills apiece. Erin Harman had seven kills as well, but the three top hitters for Navarro also made 21 errors.
"Errors are killing us," Porter said. "We're making way too many errors, and we're going to have to get cleaner to win games."
At times, the Lady Bulldogs scratched and clawed their way during the first two games. After falling behind early in the first set, Navarro fought back to within four after Harman smashed a ball cross court and Temple followed with an error. But the Lady Leopards dug in from there, scoring three straight points and capitalizing on four straight Navarro errors to end the game.
The Lady Bulldogs fought through the second game nipping at Temple's heels, tying the game at eight on a blocking error off the hand of Nwiba. Brooke Abrameit sent two dive-bomb aces over the net to cut the lead to 21-19 and Mathis smashed a kill to stay within two at 22-20, but Temple would run away with the second game 25-20.
Porter said she'd like to see more from her young squad as it prepares to travel to Hill College on Thursday.
"I wish we would have competed a little harder," she said. "I haven't been pleased so far with how we are competing. I'm hoping that we start clicking before conference starts and we start to dig a little more than we are now."
