By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON, La. — Despite a furious comeback after trailing two sets, Ruston High (12-16) fell in five sets Thursday on senior night, where libero Camille Smith was honored pregame as the Lady Bearcats’ lone senior.
“The effort for us was definitely there,” Ruston High head coach Mandy Cauley said. “I think we if we had done a better job of minimizing some careless errors in sets one and two, the outcome would have been different tonight. And that’s on us. We’ve got to stay disciplined and competitive. And but once we were pushed, I thought we fought back and we were resilient. It was just a little bit too late.
“The fight, after being down 11-3 in set five, was a small victory. They had set some individual goals for themselves and some of them accomplished those things tonight. I’m still proud of the girls and hopefully we can build on these things, moving towards this weekend and into playoffs.”
Loyola took the first set of the day after rallying from being down as many as four points in the set to win 25-22. Sophomore Bridget Crittenden finished with four kills in the first and added an ace, as well. Junior Ava Crowe added three kills and a block.
The Flyers took set two in extra points 26-24 despite a valiant Ruston effort through the middle of the stanza to outscore Loyola 12-6 and get an 18-18 tie. A big serve by Smith set up the Lady Bearcats to take a 19-18 lead, but Loyola would pull away at the end for the set win. Crowe finished the set with three kills while Baylor Cauley added two.
Ruston flipped the script in set three after trailing 15-10 to win 25-21. Junior Jane Ramsey finished with five kills in the set alone, while Crittenden got four. Cauley tacked on a pair of kills near the end to help the Lady Bearcats get the set.
Ramsey opened up set four with a block and then a kill to put Ruston up 2-1. After Loyola ended up getting ahead 19-16 later on, Ruston put together a 9-2 run to finish the set with a 25-21 win.
And after trailing 11-3 in the final set, Ruston rallied to cut it to 14-13 before Loyola got the final kill to win the match.
Cauley finished the night with 14 kills, while Crittenden finished with 11.
“(Both of them) have been kind of carrying the heavy load of our offense all season long,” Cauley said. “We can count on them, and I’m proud of them. Those two, they do carry a load because they have to set and play defense and swing and score for us. So there is a lot of pressure on both of them, and I thought they handled that very well.”
Cauley also praised Smith, her lone senior on this year’s team.
“Not everybody knows, but she’s been playing pretty much in pain all season,” Cauley said. “And so for her to get out here and fight as hard as she did, I’m so proud of her. She came in with some clutch serves tonight, as well. She’s just grown so much over the past four years, even her role throughout the program has changed — she’s done a great job for the Bearcats.”
Ruston will have one last regular season trip to Dunham for a final tournament before official playoff pairings are released on Monday of next week.
