Before a raucous crowd packing the Warren High School Gymnasium, Livingston volleyball punched their ticket to the regional semifinals with a 22-25, 25-10, 25-19 and 25-21 win over Lumberton Thursday night.
The Lady Lions won a highly contested area playoff match with an incredible defensive showing that made every volley difficult on the Lady Raiders.
In the opening set, Livingston fell behind 10-5, but would catch up to even the score at 12. Lumberton would again distance themselves at 21-15 and eventually take the first set.
Livingston took an early 5-1 lead in the second, then extended that to a 10-point difference at 16-6. At 20-8, the set had been put out of reach for the Lady Raiders.
“N’Ziya Washington smashed, Maddie Akers did a great job, and then Carly Pipes is a force to be reckoned with and she has three more years in this program,” Livingston coach Heather Mosser said. “(Opponents) are going to know after this year who Livingston is, and that should be something that they know for a few more years. When Livingston walks in the gym, we mean business and I am proud to say that.”
Lumberton would again establish a five-point lead in set three, and again, Livingston would tie the score at 12. The Lady Lions then went on a 10-3 run to later go up two sets to one.
The fourth and final race to 25 would be a tight one. Neither school would lead by more than three until the final point. Livingston took a 20-17 lead, but Lumberton tied the score at 21. The Lady Lions would grab the final four points of the night, as everyone in green erupted when the scoreboard hit 25.
“I feel like we were very evenly matched teams, skill wise. I think tonight we had more heart,” Mosser said. “Both coaches were just changing lineups trying to match up the right people. The game that we got it right, we crushed them. She flipped it and I flipped it, so we were just playing back and forth with lineups. The team with more heart won this game tonight and that was us in four. This was huge for us and our kids deserve this.”
The Livingston defense was everywhere, letting very little hit the floor inbounds.
“That was a change for us and we adapted today. We just really made it work. We were reading well, moving well, and kudos to our defense, for sure, for stepping up and making big plays.”
The Lady Lions will now move on to play Bellville in the regional semifinals at Montgomery High School. Tickets for the 6:30 p.m. game Tuesday are $5.
“This is my third year and we've gone from dead last to area champs,” Mosser said smiling. “I think that is huge. We had two wins in the first year and only 15 wins last year. Now, I think we are 28-10 with a tournament first place and area champs. These kids can go as far as they want to go. They have bought in and I've asked them to really focus on doing it the right way. They have, and I appreciate that.”
