McDaniel, Lady Highlanders sweep Bryan

THE WOODLANDS, Texas - Arizona State-bound Madison McDaniel and No. 1 nationally-ranked The Woodlands High School volleyball team sent the Bryan Lady Vikings home packing with yet another straight set victory, 3-0 (25-15, 25-14, 25-9) Tuesday night.

McDaniel led The Woodlands (35-0, 10-0) romp with 10 kills as the Lady Highlanders have won 57 of their last 58 matches going back to last season. This was their ninth consecutive sweep and have won 87 of 91 sets this season.

It took The Woodlands part of the first set to get warmed up as Bryan was able to hang around, down just 14-10 at mid-set, but the floodgates soon opened and consecutive smashes by McDaniel, Rachel Reed and then Reed again on feeds from Courtney Eckenrode widened the gap and it was smooth sailing from that point on. The set concluded when Libero Kelly Quinn lofted a precision dump out of reach of any Lady Vikings by five feet wrapping things up, 25-15.

Set two went much the same way as Bryan refused to back down. Reed served up an ace to make it 3-1 and rattled off two more winning serves putting the Lady Highlanders up 5-1. Bryan's Audrey Malone then temporarily rained on the parade with a kill that found good wood but a Julia Pasch block, a Maddie White slam, a Pasch smash and a McDaniel ace made it 10-2.

Bryan showed grit in getting back in the game when with a dump, Luera Maddie brought the Lady Vikings back into the game at 15-11. But it only woke up The Woodlands as Codi Lee served four straight winners putting the home team up 19-11 before cruising to a 25-14 win.

In set three, Kendall Cook took matters into her own hands with her D-1 like serve and the Lady Highlanders jumped out to an 11-0 lead. Quinn kept The Woodlands in the game on several of those 11 points as she was back to playing Zamboni again by diving after every ball that came close to hitting the floor.

The match concluded with Reed and Courtney Quinn hitting consecutive smashes as Bryan had run out of the gas and was good to score nine points in the final set.

Helping McDaniel at the net were Quinn and Reed with eight kills each. Echenrode turned in another gem with 28 assists. Reed was a monster at the net with six blocks and KQ had 12 digs.

Jessica Pfeffer had seven kills and six digs for Bryan. Audrey Malone chipped in with six kills.

The Woodlands sub-varsity programs have yet to lose a match as well. Coach Leslie Madison described how she and her coaches (Karen Lucas, Paula Miller and Megan McDougald) keep the players interested.

"We have a lot of fun at practice and play music and basically just keep it light. It's up to them now to show up with intensity and do what it takes. Madison continued, "With none of teams having lost a match yet this season, there's a running joke between the coaches that you don't want to be the one to lose a match first."

The Woodlands next plays at 6 p.m. Friday at College Park.