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The Floresville Jaguars, barely having time to catch their breaths after losing their season opening match to La Vernia, rebounded for a 3-1 victory over the Navarro Panthers.
The match was the second of three played at La Vernia High School Tuesday afternoon. Floresville (1-1) lost its match to La Vernia 3-1 immediately before earning their victory over Navarro. The match was Navarro's season opener.
Floresville never trailed Game 1, but had difficulty shaking off the Panthers. While they built leads with five straight points on Sonja Tweeten's service and four kills by Kyndal Bippert, Navarro fought back consistently, led by points on Gentry Bryan and Casey Braun's service, plus eight assists from Sadie Bonds. Ultimately, Floresville hung on for a 25-21 win.
The Panthers took their first lead at 2-1 in the second game, and neither team had more than a one point lead until Katie Stepke's ace put Floresville ahead 10-8. Then everything was runs: three straight points for Navarro (Gentry Bryan serving) to put the Panthers ahead 11-10, four straight for Floresville (Bippert serving) to put the Jaguars ahead 14-11. Four straight for Navarro (Bonds serving) to put the Panthers ahead 15-14, five straight for Floresville (Renata Gomez serving) to make it 19-15 Jags. Then Nicole Pollock took over the serve for the rest of the game, as Navarro scored the last ten points in a 25-19 win to even the match at 1-1.
Similar to Game 2, Game 3 was close early, with neither team lead by two until Floresville went up 8-6. One Navarro point later, Tweeten served Floresville to ten straight points, including three aces, staking the Jaguars to a 18-7 lead. Although Navarro closed the gap to one at 21-20, helped by eight straight points on Bonds' serve, the Jags held on for a 25-22 win.
Similar to Game 1, Floresville never trailed, but never had the match under control until the very end. Floresville led 23-18 – their largest lead of the game – before Navarro closed within one on three assists by Bonds, two kills by Valerie Vrana, one by Kristian Barry, and an ace from Baylie West. Stepke closed out the match for Floresville with a kill for the 24th point and an assist to Gomez for the 25th. Stepke led the Jaguars throughout the fourth game, contributing two aces, two kills, and three assists.
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