After knocking the number one team out of the Big 8 race, the Lady Houns had quite the momentum built up going into district play. They would be facing a team they had already seen several times earlier in the season, each time splitting games with, so both teams were very evenly matched. Right from the start both teams knew it was go time and did not want this game to be their last, especially for the seniors.

The first set started out dead even with both squads making great plays and showing great effort early on. Aurora had the edge early with a 10-8 lead before jumping ahead by five, 15-10. As a whole the entire team were making plays but the Lady Wolves wouldn’t back down and eventually tied the game at 16-16.  The Lady Houns fell behind 19-22 late in the first set, but rallied to 22-23 on several great kills, and blocks by Seniors Bethany Decker, Kendra Hudson and Ashlynn Meredith. Another reason Aurora was able to mount comebacks against the Wolves was due to Talia Pilkenton’s amazing digs and diving saves.  Reeds Spring would go on to win the first set on a “ In the Net” call to give the Lady Wolves their game winning point. The second set was packed full of excitement and was a great encore to the first set. Once again both teams started out deadlocked at 8-8, before Reeds Spring made some great scoring plays to pull ahead 15-12. Aurora finally broke the Lady Wolves serve and Senior Kimberlin Ackerman stepped up to serve, but a little different than usually. She stood about five feet farther back than normal and then gently tossed the ball almost to the rafters and jumped and served a rocket to the Lady Wolves sparking a huge Lady Houn come back , and the Lady Houns pulled ahead 21-16 before the Lady Wolves called a timeout, but Aurora would win the second set on a Rachel Crockett kill in the corner to win. The Lady Houn fans erupted and gave the Lady Houns a standing ovation.

The Lady Houns watched their selves slip to the brink of elimination and fought their way back and earned a great win to force a third and final set. The winner would move on to face the second seeded Cassville Wildcats and the loser would clean out their lockers and go home for the season. Reeds Spring answered the call and jumped to an early 5-0 lead over the Lady Houns before Aurora pulled back within two points at 6-8. Reeds Spring never lost the lead in the final set and played very well against everything the Lady Houns gave them. Every time a ball looked like it was going to hit they were their to save it and dig it out. Their efforts deflated the Lady Houns and the Lady Wolves jumped to 21-13 lead and the Lady Houns realized once again that their season was on the line and showed great emotion to fight for every point, but Reeds Spring proved to be too much for the Lady Houns and went on to win 25-18, ending what looked like another great come from behind win for the Lady Houns. The Lady Houns will greatly miss their leadership and seven seniors as they played their final game as a Lady Houn on Monday night. Great Job Seniors, and Great season Lady Houns.

 

AURORA WILL HOST DISTRICTS, DISTRICTS START MONDAY NIGHT AURORA VS REEDS SPRING

Coming off a good showing at the Annual Ozark Tournament and advancing into the Silver Bracket the Lady Houns came home to host the Cassville Wildcats who were seeded number 2 in Districts that will be held next week in Aurora starting Monday. Cassville barely scraped by in the first set 25-20 and the win deflated the Lady Houns and Cassville took an early lead 20-10 and went on to win 25-17 and drop the Lady Houns to 3-3 in the BIG 8 for the season. The Lady Houns will travel to Carl Junction on Thursday night for their last regular season game.

On a night where two teams faced off with similar BIG 8 records ( 3-1) the night was decided on a no call by the officials and a call by the opposing coach which in turn influenced the officials decision. There's nothing like home court advantage in close games, and every team has their fair share of calls, but the Lady Houns just came up on the wrong end of this one which dropped the Lady Houns to 3-2 in the Big 8 but not out of the race just yet. Aurora played very hard both sets, and continuing the close scoring from game to game each set was decided by three points or less, the first set 25-22, and the second 27-25. Each game had it's fair share of lead changes and ties, and in the second set when Aurora had rallied back to tie the game at 25, East Newton pulled ahead 26-25 and what would have tied the game at 26, a ball was hit into the very corner where no official could make a clean call and the East Newton coach jumped on the floor where the ball supposedly hit and the officials went with his call, when in reality the ball came down inside the lines, but the officials should have called replay. The Lady Houns will have to put this game in their back pocket and use it as motivation as they host Cassville on Tuesday night for Senior night and the Lady Houns have eight seniors to honor!

The Lady Houns traveled to Monett last Thursday to take on the Lady Cubs for a conference matchup. The Lady Houns went into the game knowing that haven't beat Monett the last three seasons, but Aurora has been playing with high emotions and was coming off a heartbreaking loss at home to rival Mt. Vernon. Monett was looking to pick up another easy conference win, but the Lady Houns had other ideas and played very hard against the Cubs, and were able to take the game into three sets and pull off the upset and win 27-25 in the third and final set to make their record 5-10-1 and more importantly stay in the conference race improving to 2-1 in the BIG 8. The Lady Houns will host Lamar on Tuesday night for a Conference matchup!