Lady Highlanders advance to region finals

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Madison McDaniel and The Woodlands High School volleyball team, ranked No. 1 state and nationally, traveled to Sam Houston State University's Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum on Friday to play in the Region II-5A smifinals and took care of business sweeping the Allen Lady Eagles, 3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-18).

The Lady Highlanders (42-0) advance to the 5:30 p.m. Saturday region championship match where they face Plano, which advanced by defeating Round Rock earlier Friday.

In what was a complete team effort, the Arizona State-bound McDaniel led the Lady Highlanders with 17 kills as Allen proved to be the toughest team The Woodlands has faced recently.

Set one started with a Kendall Cook service winner and a Courtney Quinn smash as The Woodlands jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead. It appeared as if The Woodlands would be in cruise control but Allen's Kaitlyn Blake had other ideas with a kill off of a nice Chandler Atwood feed helping the Lady Eagles find their comfort zone.

Allen took their first lead at 8-7 when Camryn Freiberg slammed one home and outside hitter Sheridan Ralston made it a two-point advantage at 9-7 with a kill that painted the back line.

Quinn got The Woodlands back in it with a smash off of a perfect backwards feed from Courtney Eckenrode and a Rachel Reed block shifted the momentum back in The Woodlands favor. McDaniel kept the Lady Highlanders in the next point with a diving dig and Quinn rewarded her teammate with a no-look dump that landed on Allen's side of the court. An Allen setting error earned The Woodlands their fourth point in a row making it 11-9.

The Woodlands tried to shake Allen loose and was able to create some separation at 19-16 but Allen tied it up on the strength of three kills by Blake, Atwood and Freiberg in order.

Quinn slammed another one home with Cook assisting and The Woodlands won the final two points of the set with the help of two Kelly Quinn diving digs keeping the Lady Highlanders in both points.

Allen was able to keep the score close in set two as well but were always one step behind and never had the lead. At 4-4, McDaniel converted a seeing eye dump, then an ace and Courtney Quinn chimed in with a kill on another excellent set by Eckenrode, making it 7-4.

Katie Ingle got Allen within one with a kill making the score 9-8 but from this point on, the Lady Eagles could get no closer than two points and after a Morgan Eason block, the Lady Highlanders closed out the second set.

In the final set, The Woodlands was just too much. Eckenrode helped close out the match assisting on three points to include a Quinn dump and a kill each by Reed and McDaniel.

Eckenrode went off again with 36 assists and 23 digs. Quinn had 15 kills and 15 digs. Cook and Kelly Quinn had 18 and 13 digs respectively. McDaniel had seven digs to go along with her 17 kills. Reed had six kills and four blocks.

For Allen, Freiberg had 11 kills and three digs. Lauren Moussaid had 18 digs.

"A win's a win, right?" said The Woodlands coach, Leslie Madison after exiting the locker room. "We didn't play our best and were fortunate to still be able to win. We just keep telling them to step up and finish strong so we can make it to the show."

Madison continued, "Allen is a good team. They pass well and play smart. I saw Plano play earlier and they look good and have some good kids. Everyone is good now."