STRINGER, LADY CATS OPEN CAMPAIGN IN MANSFIELD

The Bailey Stringer era of Lady Cat volleyball got off to a marathon start on Monday as the Lady Cats took a defending state champion to five sets over just under two hours of play.

Mansfield was 21-0 in 2020 but the Lady Cats, down 2-1 in sets and 21-9 in the fourth set, rallied to beat the Class 2A title holders 31-29 to force a fifth set.

After a ball out of bounds finally broke the Lady Tigers serve, Jessica Cauthon (pictured during last week's Purple-White scrimmage) started the rally with an ace. A combined block by Karmen Kent and Joleigh Tate made it 21-13 and two more Cauthon aces cut the deficit to six.

A kill by Kent made it 21-17 and Mansfield took a time out.

Mansfield moved out to a 24-18 lead before another Tate kill put Kate Spain on serve and Spain stayed there through 24-23 and another Mansfield time out. She returned to the back and, eventually a kill by Lunsford gave the Lady Cats a 25-24 lead.

The teams alternated points until the Lady Cats finally won the set when, tied at 29-29 Lunsford had two digs in the sequence that wound up making it 30-29 and she set up Tate for the set winning kill.

Mansfield was able to keep their winning streak alive with a 15-11 win in the final set to complete the 25-16, 21-25, 27-25, 29-31, 15-11 line score for the day.

Lunsford finished the match with a team high in both aces and digs with 9 and 33, respectively.

There were five Lady Cats with double digits in digs with Halee Villarreal recording 24, Cauthon 16, Tate 14, and Spain 11.

Lunsford was also the service leader with 94.3 percent with both Spain (93.8) and Cauthon (90.5) scoring above 90 percent as well.

The Lady Cats’ next scheduled match is Thursday in Atkins. They are slated to go to Ozark on Monday and have their home opener next Tuesday against Waldron.