Published October 07, 2009 04:18 am - Tuesday night was Senior Night at Norman North, where the Timberwolves set about evening their season series with crosstown rival Norman High.
Before that could happen, however, Lydia Rice had to be honored.
T-Wolves roll
Clay Horning
Tuesday night was Senior Night at Norman North, where the Timberwolves set about evening their season series with crosstown rival Norman High.
Before that could happen, however, Lydia Rice had to be honored. She's the only senior on North's squad and Tuesday she got to celebrate twice.
Once when she had Senior Night all to herself and again when the T-Wolves finished off their 25-15, 25-22, 25-18 victory sweep.
"Let's just say it was awesome," Rice said.
Awesome may cover it.
North was much better than earlier in the season, when NHS put an end to the T-Wolves quick start to the season, winning a four-set match on the Tigers' floor.
"Our offense and defense worked together," North coach Karin Ream said. "We minimized our errors"
So just about everybody in green and white played well. But nobody was better than sophomore Lexie Matthews.
"That was probably the most intense match we've played all season," Matthews said.
Her play certainly fed into it. The 15-year-old finished the night with a match-high 13 kills and a team-high four blocks. Raw numbers aside, the most impressive thing she did was play with a consistency rarely witnessed in the high school game.
"This is one of her best matches," Ream said. "She's got it in her."
Matthews made her presence known in the first set, racking up five kills, including the 25th point. During one stretch in the second set, through kills or blocks, she was responsible for five of six consecutive North points.
She was quiet in the final set until the end. But she came through in the end, delivering one more cannon shot to end the match.
Matthews knew she'd played well, but figured it was everybody playing pretty well.
"I wanted to go out there and play my best," she said. "I had a feeling everybody was going to play well."