Sunday, April 28, 2024
The Gatesville volleyball team is competing in their final tournament of the season having won four of their last six games.
The Lady Hornets ran up a 4-1 mark to take third place in the Gatesville Invitational August 17-19 before falling to Academy on Aug. 22. A quick turnaround has them back in Academy this weekend participating in the Bees annual invitational tournament.
In the Gatesville Invitational, the Lady Hornets won their first three pool play games. They opened the tournament with straight set wins over Lampasas (25-10, 25-20) and Waco High (25-19, 25-12) and a three-set win over McGregor (22-25, 28-26, 25-18).
The win over the Lady Bulldogs had a significant amount of energy – especially for a Thursday afternoon tournament game. It showed head coach Janey Weber a glimpse of some of the grit they’ll need for district play.
“We did not start out playing the way we should against McGregor, however I was very proud of the way the girls fought back to win,” Weber said. “We were down about 7-8 points, and they showed a lot of resilience coming back and fighting.”
After losing the first set, the Lady Hornets staved off three match points in the second set.
Down 24-23, McGregor served for the match and an errant return sent the ball into the net where freshman setter Anna McPherson deftly scooped it off the floor and over to sophomore outside hitter Emma Pollard, who landed a winner into the middle of the unsuspecting defense to tie the game at 24-24.
McGregor won the next point to take a 25-24 lead but was unable to execute a return of Pollard’s serve, leading to a 25-25 tie. The Lady Hornets serve to take the lead was long meaning they faced another match point down 26-25.
This time it was senior Barrett Boyd who responded as she dropped a winner just over the arms of the McGregor defense to tie the game at 26-26. From there, the Lady Hornets rode the serve of sophomore Taylor Sanderson to consecutive winners to force a third set.
In the third set, Gatesville trailed 9-8 but a block from Boyd and Addison Taylor tied the game 9-9. An unforced McGregor error gave the Lady Hornets a 10-9 lead they would never relinquish capped by a Laura Trejo winner to clos the match.
In the tournament semi-final the Lady Hornets fell to 3A No. 6 Troy 18-25, 26-24, 19-25 but bounced back and throttled Lampasas again 25-15, 25-20 in the third-place game.
“We started off a little slow on Thursday, but by Saturday our team really started to come together. We played with a lot more enthusiasm, confidence, and a lot of fight,” Weber said.
Against Troy they were down 15-9 early in the second set but tied the game three times late – first at 20-20, then at 23-23 and again at 24-24. Back-to-back aces from McPherson gave then a 26-24 win in the second set.
“I thought the girls competed really well against Troy. We had a few mental mistakes, but overall we did a lot of good things,” Weber said. “Troy is a great team and they know how to pick out your weaknesses.”
The three-set loss to Academy (9-25, 20-25, 23-25) was Gatesville’s 17th game since Aug. 17 – par for the course in high school volleyball where the grind starts quickly.
“We have played a lot of games in the first two weeks, and I definitely feel like we are continuing to get better each day which is what you want to see. I don't expect nor want us to be at our peak right now,” Weber said.
Following the Academy Tournament, Gatesville will play road games at Fairfield (August 29) and Lake Belton (Sept. 1) before returning home to face Brownwood on Sept. 5. On Sept. 8, they will face Georgetown Gateway in a rematch of last season’s bi-district playoff game.
