By Van Wade

The Orange Leader

BAYTOWN – A superb season came to an end for the Orangefield Lady Bobcats Tuesday night as the fell to the powerful East Bernard Brahmarettes in the Class 3A Region III volleyball quarterfinals 25-12, 25-18, 25-14 at Lee College.

The Lady Bobcats wrapped up a season in which they put together an amazing 31-10 campaign, finishing second in District 22-3A and capturing two playoff victories.

However, East Bernard (32-13) who made the 3A state semifinals last year and who has advanced to the Region III finals for four straight years, were simply to overpowering in each game to turn back the Lady Bobcats.

East Bernard was in total command of each game from the beginning

The Brahmarettes controlled Game One from the get-go and led by as much as 20-6 before the Lady Bobcats staged a late rally.

East Bernard led Game Two by as much as 21-9 but the Lady Bobcats showed the spirit they had all season long, rallying to get as close as 23-18 before East Bernard put the game away.

The Brahmarettes broke away from an 11-7 lead in Game Three with a 11-3 spurt to go up 22-11. Senior Bailee Click had a couple big kills at the end but it wasn’t quite enough as East Bernard moved on to the Region III semifinals.

Click led the Lady Bobcats with 10 kills but East Bernard dominated at the net and with their service game all night.

East Bernard, sparked by Samantha Rabius’ match-high 12 kills, finished with 38 kills for the match while Orangefield had 21.

The Brahmarettes had a magical service game as they finished with 45 points and 12 aces. The Lady Bobcats scored just 15 points on their serve with no aces.

Tori Koenig had eight kills for East Bernard while Brooke Dirba had five and McKenna Novicke and Kaitlyn Sulak added four apiece.

Sulak finished with 12 points and two aces. Kenadi Domel had nine points and three aces and Novicke contributed nine points and four aces.