Staff writer
In the first match of the Class 1A, Division I substate volleyball tournament Saturday at Centre High School, the Lady Cougars were knocked out by Southern Cloud in two competitive games.
Centre was seeded fifth with a 12-17 record. Southern Cloud was seeded fourth with a 15-16 record.
Centre suffered from bad serves in the first game but good spiking gave the team a 14-8 lead before Southern Cloud started gaining on them. The game was tied at 14-14 and again at 16-16 before Southern Cloud edged ahead, maintaining a one-point lead before clinching the victory at 25-22.
The second game started out close but Southern Cloud led by three or four points for quite some time before the Lady Cougars made a comeback and tied the game at 22-22.
With a 24-22 lead on serves by senior Allison Shields, it looked like Centre was going to pull out a victory, but Southern Cloud closed the gap to 24-24 and added two more points to win the game, 26-24.
It was the final high school match for seniors Shields, Tori Marler, and Amanda Floyd.
The two teams with byes, Sylvan-Lucas (28-7) and Little River (23-11), played for the championship. Sylvan-Lucas won in two games, 25-18 and 25-11.