By Jack Walker

Staff Writer

The good news was, Howe opened the 2010 North Texas Volleyball Classic playing in the Arena at the Prosper athletic complex that is the home court for the school's volleyball and basketball teams.

The bad new was that the opponent would be the Lady Eagles, a team that is one of the top volleyball programs in the area. Prosper had little trouble in dispatching the Lady Bulldogs, sweeping the two games in the best of three format.

Howe failed to win a match during pool play at the event.

The Lady Bulldogs rebounded to win two-of-three games in bracket play on Saturday, sweeping matches with FW. Poly and Pilot Point. They lost the final to a strong Paris North Lamar team.

Prosper 25, Howe 7

Prosper 25, Howe 6

The Lady Eagles just had too many weapons for a young Howe team to contain in the opener. They displayed all of their skills and depth in cruising to the win. Scout Wonsang came right out of the box to open the first game with a pair of aces and after Howe had broken serve by virtue of a Prosper miscue, Courtney Lemley reeled off three more. Howe's first five points in the set were the result of mistakes by the Lady Eagles. A kill by Tiffani Batchelor was the only offensive point scored by Howe in the set.

More disappointment for the visitors in the second game as Prosper turned up the defensive heat to take the 19-point win. Two solid hits by Ashton James were both returned by the veteran front line of Prosper and that took a lot of emotion out of the Howe attack.

Aubrey 25, Howe 18

Aubrey 25, Howe 22

The Lady Bulldogs bounced back nicely from that crushing loss in the first match to give an Aubrey team all it wanted in the second round. Two Lady Chap errors and back-to-back aces by Madison Wilson got the Lady Bulldogs off to a 4-0 start and the team was playing with a lot more confidence.

Kayla Bernard, a tall outside hitter for Aubrey, stepped up her game and her shot to the back line got her team off to a 6-0 run.. A kill by Morgan Bailey stopped that but the Aubrey attack continued as they built up a 17-10 lead.

A kill by Madison Milson and a service winner from Taylor Lewers got Howe back on track and Aubrey errors cut the lead to 23-18.A kill by Bernard and Kaitlin Dorsett's ace closed out the game as Aubrey took the 25-18 win.

Getting some outstanding play by James. Batchelor and Bailey, Howe got off to an early lead in the second set and a kill by Bailey late in the game tied the score at 16 each. After ties at 18 and 19, a soft shot that fell for Jade Covington gave Howe a lead at 20-19. Aubrey bounced back to regain the lead and never gave it up on its way to the 25-22 win to claim the game and match.

Irving North Hills 25, Howe 9

Irving North Hills 25, Howe 19

Howe had to turn right around from that loss to Aubrey to take on its next opponent and they were pretty listless in the first set, losing by 16 points.

They played much better in the second as two kills by James gave them a 12-9 lead. A kill by Jennifer Vincent and back-to-back aces by James got the game all square at 15 each before the Irving school began to pull away.

Three straight winners from the service line got them off on a 7-0 run and Howe had little left in the tank.

Bailey had a kill late for Howe and Brittnni Smith put down a service winner before Irving closed the door in the 6-point game.