KOUNTZE – “Can you dig it”.

Fans of the Little Cypress-Mauriceville volleyball team certainly can after they watched the L         ady Bears dispose of the Tarkington Lady Longhorns in a hard-fought, five-game Class 4A Region III bidistrict playoff game Tuesday night at Kountze High School.

The Lady Bears (28-10) prevailed over a hard-hitting Tarkington (25-14) team 16-25, 25-19, 25-20, 23-25, 15-7 to advance to the area round where they will face Bay City.

It marked the first playoff win as the Lady Bear coach for first-year head coach Rhonda Williams.

Tarkington had more kills than the Lady Bears on the night with a 59-43 edge but it was the number of shots the Lady Bears dug up led by “digging machine” Brielle Butler along with Trinity Williams, Zoe Levens and Caitlyn Woods.

The Lady Bears also set up their offense well, especially setting up senior kill leader Chelsea Perry, wjho piled up a team-high 18 kills. Alyssa Ammons poured out 14 kills as well for the Lady Bears.

The LC-M win offset a huge hitting performance from Tarkington’s Sydney Whitmire, who piled up a match-high 23 kills. Jade West had 16 kills for the Lady Longhorns.

The Lady Longhorns snagged Game One by going on a 11-2 run to finish it.

LC-M bounced back in Game Two, leading most of the way, then closing it with a 6-1 run.

It looked as if Tarkington was going to cruise to a big Game Three win, leading by as much as 17-10. However, the Lady Bears turned the game around as well as the match.

Williams caught fire with her serve as she served up seven straight points, including three aces as the Lady Bears were able to go up 18-17. The Lady Bears led 22-20 and then finished it with the final three points to complete a 15-3 spurt.

LC-M looked to close it by going up 13-5 in Game Four only to see the Lady Longhorns get back in it. Trailing 19-16 late, the Lady Longhorns rallied to capture nine of the last 13 points in the game.

Game Five was all about the Lady Bears. They raced out to an 8-3 lead. Tarkington managed to trim it to 11-7 but that would be as close as the Lady Longhorns would get as LC-M powered their way to the last four points, including two kills from Perry.

Williams finished with 11 service points and five aces for the Lady Bears. LC-M finished with 14 aces while the Lady Longhorns had just four.

Payten Smith collected 11 points and ace for the Lady Bears and her serves were huge in Game Five. Butler had nine points and three aces. Woods collected eight points. Levens had seven points and three aces while Perry had five points and an ace.

Williams added four kills for the Lady Bears while Olivia Hogan had three and Woods and Levens added two apiece.

Parker Lewis had 10 kills for the Lady Longhorns while Emily Lowe contributed seven.

Kayla Lowe led Tarkington with nine service points and an ace. West had eight points. Macee Moreau collected seven points . Tamara Comstock had six points and an ace while Whitmire and Shelby Johnson each had five points and an ace.