Mt. Vernon Register-News

Sports

September 1, 2010

Cardinals fall to Tigers

Thompsonville 'D' slows powerful Woodlawn attack

Powell Latimer powell.latimer@register-news.com

WOODLAWN — The Lady Cardinals brought plenty of power to bear on Thompsonville, but the Tigers defense stiffened and Woodlawn fell in straight games Wednesday night.

“This was our third game,” Thompsonville coach Jerry Warren said. “Probably from top to bottom, this is the best game we’ve played.”

Woodlawn’s athletic front line opened the game firing spikes, and the powerful Cardinal shots allowed for an early 4-1 lead as it looked like Woodlawn might dominate the game.

But the Tigers’ defense rose to the challenge and Thompsonville answered quickly with a 5-0 run to take the lead at 6-4.

“Woodlawn’s got some hitters,” Warren said. “They’ve got some girls that can hit the ball. Our defense was pretty solid.”

The first game stayed neck and neck until another spurt from the Tigers put them in command. Down 15-14, Thompsonville (2-1) ripped off six straight points and closed out the first game on an 11-3 run to win, 25-18.

In the second game, Woodlawn poured on the attack with spike after spike from Whitney Lowery and Leah Sutton, but often times their shots rocketed into the arms of Thompsonville defenders, and the Tigers took early control as the Cardinals pressed to equalize the game.

“We’re not that kind of a power team,” Warren said of Woodlawn’s powerful spikes. “Defensively, we’ve got to step up and the girls did a really good job of getting in position tonight.”

Woodlawn fell behind early 2-6, and could never claw back to the lead or to tie the game, as Thompsonville outlasted a final Cardinals run to take the second game and the match, 25-20.

“This is probably the best job overall that we did,” Warren said. “We read where they were going to hit, and the girls made some good passes. And we didn’t have any of those small letdowns.”

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