The Kingwood Park Panthers volleyball team has faced a tough schedule to start the defense of their state championship in 2019, and two weeks ago was no exception.
Park faced nine matches away from home, first at College Park, and then they traveled to the Volleypalooza tournament in the Austin area for a weekend full of matches.
Tuesday, Aug. 20 was a tough night for K-Park. While the Panthers took the first set at College Park, the Cavaliers rallied in a big way to take the next three sets, all in decisive fashion. The closest of those sets was the second College Park set win, which was 25-19.
The Lady Panthers then headed to the Volleypalooza tournament that weekend where again, they took their fair share of lumps, as they went 2-6 in eight matches in the tournament.
Their first round of matches took place Thursday, Aug. 22; the Lady Panthers were placed in Pool Eight with San Antonio Churchill, Round Rock and Warren.
Kingwood Park lost all those matches in decisive sweeps. Churchill defeated Park 25-13 and 25-16, Round Rock defeated them 25-16 and 25-13 and Warren won 25-15 and 25-20.
On Friday, Aug. 23, the Lady Panthers again played three matches, this time in Group Two, Pool Seven, with their three opponents being Shadow Creek, Santa Fe and Barbers Hill.
This time, Park won two of the three matches; they lost the first set to Shadow Creek 25-19, but then rallied to tie it up in a tough second set which they won 27-25. The Lady Panthers then won the decisive set easily, 25-15.
Santa Fe beat the Lady Panthers in the second match of the day, 25-13 and 25-23, but Park rebounded to beat Barbers Hill 25-22 and 25-21.
On the final day of the tournament, the Lady Panthers played two more matches. They lost to McKinney 25-20 and 25-22 and fell to Vista Ridge 25-12 and 25-13.
