TEXARKANA, Texas - Pleasant Grove's second set victory in its volleyball match against Liberty-Eylau was the tipping point.
The Lady Hawks (15-4, 5-1) swept the Lady Leopards, 25-7, 26-24, 25-6, in a cross-town rivalry, District 15-4A match at the Rader Dome on Tuesday.
"The first and third sets were fine," Pleasant Grove head coach Amy Collvins said. "We had a good rhythm and played smart. I thought that we quit being aggressive with our serving in the second set. We never got the other team out of kilter. Liberty-Eylau saw some light and played hard. They are young so they go through roller coasters.
"We have to finish, and we want to keep tempo. Everyone got to play. Overall, we are playing solid volleyball. I had some kids play in some different positions today to mix it up. But we need to be able to keep the tempo no matter what I do to the lineup."
Pleasant Grove's 26-24 win in the second set took a lot of momentum from Liberty-Eylau and swung it heavily in favor of the Hawks. The set featured six ties at 1, 2, 3, 4, 24 and 25-all.
After battling back from a 20-13 deficit, the Lady Leopards had three straight hitting errors over the last three points of the second set.
"We are progressing and sometimes it's slow," L-E head coach Lacy Middlebrooks said. "And that is okay that it is slow. We have a lot left and have some important games coming up. We need to finish district strong."
Down 21-14 in the second set, Liberty-Eylau scored five consecutive points to make it a 3-point set at 21-18. Tamara Norris had a pair of kills and Ja'Kai Ray put down a kill during the flurry.
Sarah Hale's kill gave Pleasant Grove the serve back at 22-18. The Hawks scored two points later in the set on two Leopard hitting errors to take a 24-21 lead. Not phased at set point, L-E scored four in a row to take a 25-24 lead. But three consecutive Leopard hitting errors ended the highly competitive set.
Katie Ferguson, who finished with six kills, served in seven straight points to give PG a 15-3 lead in the first set. During the rally, Harleigh O'Neal and Hallie Lipham each had a pair of kills.
Macy Young finished off the set with seven consecutive serves of her own. Young's ace brought up set point for the Hawks.
Young finished with 15 service points and 11 assists, while teammate O'Neal had five kills. Ella Nichols made a match-high 13 digs for Pleasant Grove.
Lexie Snyder took the server's box with the Hawks up 10-6 in the third set. Snyder served eight points in a row before Mackenzie Williams came in to serve for her. During Snyder's service, Lipham had a pair of kills and Rose Anderson had a kill. The Leopards had five hitting errors during Snyder's service turn. Snyder finished with 10 service points and eight digs.
Williams had seven straight service points to finish out the match. The match ended when Williams' serve created a Leopard service return error.
Liberty-Eylau leaders included Norris, who had eight kills and five digs, Ja'Niya Sanders, who contributed three kills and four digs, Kayla Crabtree (five digs), Myah Hurd (four blocks), Haven Johnson (16 assists) and Breanna Webster (four kills, two blocks).