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The Rice Lady Raiders volleyball team is hoping that their run through the non-district portion of their schedule helped prepare them for the incoming stretch of district matches against some of the difficult opponents on their schedule. Rice has already shown a high level of improvement, reaching nine wins before district and beating their win total from all of last season. While many parts of their game have improved, they will need to continue to improve to recover from a pair of losses to non-district opponents last week. The district season opener will not come easily for the Lady Raiders as they face top-10 Columbus to start their run.
Vs Louise, L, 3-2
The Lady Raiders had one of their only five-game matches of the season in a close battle against Louise that came down to the wire in the final set. Rice was competitive throughout but could not close the deal after taking victories in two straight sets after an initial defeat.
Rice needed some time to get their offensive attack warmed up against the Lady Hornets. They had their most offensive struggles in the opening set, falling in game one by a 25-13 margin as they failed to keep close.
The Lady Raiders responded in a big way in the following sets as their offense returned to make an impact. Rice won game two in a close, 25-20 victory before defeating Louise again in game three by an even bigger 25-15 margin.
Rice took the advantage and hoped they would be able to claim the match in game four to complete the comeback, however, they fell a little short in that set and took a 25-17 defeat that forced a decisive game five against the Lady Hornets.
The final set of the match was highly competitive as both teams stayed locked with each other for a large part of the shortened set. Though the set was close, Louise was the team that took the final advantage as they secured the 15-13 victory to claim the match.
Vs Brazos, L, 3-1
The Lady Raiders once again needed some time for their offensive attack to reach its highest output in their penultimate non-district match. Rice struggled against the defense of the Lady Cougars in each of the first two sets as they fell to an early disadvantage in the match.
Rice could not keep close with their opponents in the first set as they just reached the 15-point mark after having difficulties finding ways to score. They lost the first game by a 25-15 margin as the Lady Cougars claimed an early advantage.
They furthered their advantage with an even more dominant victory in game two, defeating the Lady Raiders by a 25-12 margin in the second set to push Rice to the brink of suffering their second-straight match loss.
The Lady Raiders fought back in the third set as their offensive attack returned to prevent a sweep by their opponents. The set was a hotly contested competition that saw Rice take a 25-22 victory to force another game. The offense stayed competitive in the final set of the match; however, the Lady Raiders fell just short as they suffered a 25-21 loss in the decisive final game.
