Reporter-News photo by Thomas Metthe Cooper's Samantha Koss (5) and Chelsea Crank (13) attempt to block the shot of a San Angelo Lakeview player during the second game of the Lady Cougars' 3-0 win Tuesday at Cooper High School.

It wasn't pretty, but it was a win -- and Cooper clinched a playoff berth, too.

The Lady Coogs fought off San Angelo Lake View, 25-13, 26-24 and 25-19, in a District 4-4A match Tuesday at the Cooper gymnasium.

Ellie Harp had a match-high 13 kills and 15 assists, as Cooper (19-15 overall, 4-1 district) clinched its first playoff berth since 2002. The victory gave the Lady Coogs a two-match sweep of Lake View (11-26, 0-5), which can't catch Cooper with only three more matches to go in the five-team district. Four teams advance to the playoffs.

"I'm really stoked," Cooper senior Lauren Frick said about clinching a playoff berth. "I'm just ready to go and keep playing hard."

Frick is one of six seniors on the team who have never been to the playoffs. But Hartdige, another senior, said just getting to the playoffs isn't enough.

"We want to win the rest of them," she said. "We want to dominate in the playoffs."

Cooper didn't play its best against the Maidens, despite the sweep. After cruising to the opening-game victory, the Lady Coogs started playing just well enough to win.

That almost cost them in Game 2. The game was tied nine times. Cooper let a 19-14 lead evaporate, as the Maidens tied the game at 19. Lake View took its first lead of the day at 20-19 and led by as much as two. But the game was tied four more times, the last at 24. Lake View had its last lead at 22-21. Harp had two kills and Chelsea Crank had another kill as the Lady Coogs pulled out the victory, though they needed two tries at game point.

Cooper led 11-5 in Game 3, but Lake View reeled off five consecutive points. Neither team could get much momentum going, before Cooper slowly pulled away for the victory.

The Lady Coogs never trailed in the game and trailed only twice the entire match. Still, they didn't play as well as they have in their previous district victories -- all on the road.

"It was a little slow," Frick said. "We kind of played down to their level. But we pulled through."

Cooper coach Nora Oglesby said her team did just enough to win.

"There's a comfort level for sure," she said. "Like, 'We'll get it next time; we'll get it next time' Instead of that intensity that we won't let that happen at all."

Samantha Koss had seven kills for Cooper, and Hartdige had six. Crank had four. Courtney Cardona had 10 digs. Jessica Renner had 9 digs and three kills. Frick had seven digs. Kelsey Hundt had 16 assists.

Whitney Olness had 11 kills for Lake View, and Skylar Anderson had five.

"Our goal tonight was like hold them to 15, not let them score more than that (each game)," Frick said. "We still did our ultimate goal and won."

It's Cooper's first District 4-4A victory at home. The Lady Coogs previous district victories had all been on the road, including an emotional 23-25, 25-23, 25-10, 26-24 victory at Plainview on Saturday.

Cooper wraps up district play at home against Big Spring (Oct. 21) and Plainview (Oct. 25), before going to Wolfforth Frenship (Oct. 28) in the district finale. Frenship beat Cooper 3-0 on Oct. 4 in Abilene.

Cooper could be playing for a share of the district title in that final district match, if it can take care of business at home. The Lady Coogs are certainly in position to finish second in the district.

"We'll get better," Oglesby said. "We know how to play on the road. Now, it's time to play at home and get used to that."