Randall Lady Raiders fall in state title game 3-2 to Davenport

GARLAND, Texas (KFDA) - The Lady Raiders lost to Davenport in the 4A state title game on Saturday afternoon.

The match started with Davenport coming out of the gates strong, taking a 9-3 lead early. However, the Lady Raiders stormed back to take the set 25-22.

The Lady Raiders then rallied from behind once more in set two, trailing 16-12 after an 11-3 run by Davenport. That’s when Gove and company took things to another level, taking 13 of the next 19 points to take the set by an identical score to the first, 25-22.

However, Davenport put the blown leads behind them and came out strong in the next two sets, taking each 25-22 and 25-21 leading to a winner-take-all fifth set.

In the fifth set, it was Gove time. The star senior started with three early kills, but things were still tied 4-4. The two teams continued to trade blows with no team even managing to get out to a two-point lead until back-to-back kills from Gove and Brooke Henderson gave Randall the 8-6 lead and forced a Davenport timeout. Gove had a total of 7 kills in the final set, but Davenport’s Talan Dodson took her game to another level as well.

Dodson had 9 kills in the final set (29 total in the match). With Davenport trailing 11-8, Talan Dodson posted six straight kills for her team to go ahead 14-12 in the set. Randall bounced right back with three straight points to go up 15-14, but Talan Dodson answered with a kill and an ace followed by a kill by her sister, Ashtan Dodson, to seal the victory 17-15 in the final set and complete the reverse sweep for the state title.

Randall’s Jordyn Gove finished the match with an incredible 26 kills and 21 digs. Brooke Henderson added 17 kills and 17 digs.

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