Cougars had Hawks on the ropes, but lose 3-2
8/24/23: The Cottage School Cougars played host to the back-to-back AAC champion Howard Hawks Wednesday night. TCS has not beaten Howard since 2018; during their first ever and still only AAC championship season. And though this still stands true, last night they proved history has an opportunity to repeat itself this season.
Up two sets to one, Cottage could have finished Howard off in game four but serving errors plagued both teams. It seemed neither squad wanted to win service as both teams hit the ball in the net. The Hawks had a strong server rotate in to tie the game at 21. #13 lined over four straight to win 25-21, tying the match and forcing a set five.
Howard jumped on TCS 7-1 before a Cougar timeout. Coach Zephryino and Helena gave instructions that generated some life as Cottage began to crawl back in the set, down just 7-10. After a serving error, the Hawks put over two in a row and moments later it seemed TCS was done, down 7-13. The Cougars took their final timeout and Bella Aparicio came through with four straight serving points to get within two; 11-13. Howard returned a successful serve with a massive kill but served it in their own net. With the home team down 12-14 they had one last gasp. Cottage served it in the net and Howard ended the exciting close match with a 15-12 set win and 3-2 match victory.
The Cougars had their closest match in five years versus the mighty Hawks and will use this performance for motivation in preparation for the rest of the season and their next battle down in Atlanta. Next up for the Cougars they face the Mill Springs Mustangs here at the Cougar Center at 4:30 PM, Thursday night. The middle school Cougars will play a JV match first and you don’t want to miss that. Our MS team defeated the Howard JV team 2-0 last night in their first showing of the year.
Game Notes
Freshman Alaina Larson made history last night with her serving in one set. She began set three with seven straight aces and that has never been done by a Cougar in TCS history. She finished the night with 14 points, 10 aces, 5 kills, and 2 blocks.
Senior Alyssa Briggs had another strong outing. She finished with 13 points, 5 aces, 2 kills, and several digs.
Senior Bella Aparicio earned 11 points for the night. In set one, she scored over six points in a row and in the final game her accuracy almost gave her team a comeback win.
Sophomore Carly Love made some nice passes again in this match. She finished with 8 points and a kill.
Freshman Skylar Brown served and bumped very accurately for most of the night. She scored 5 points and had an ace.
Senior Anna Morris had 7 points and made some nice bumping saves.
Another strong freshman Camryn Pursley made some good plays and put in an ace and a kill.
