Lady Highlanders take second straight volleyball championship title

GARLAND, Texas - Coach Leslie Madison and her Woodlands Lady Highlander volleyball team had one team standing between them and their goal to become state champions and realize their "New Team, Same Dream" 2014 slogan. So, what did they do? They did what clutch performers do, they took it to the Clear Falls Lady Knights (33-11) to the tune of a 3-1 (25-22, 25-22, 21-25, 27-25) victory and made history by being the first Texas UIL-6A volleyball state champion.

If you listened to pre-season prognosticators, they'd have told you that a reasonable goal for the Lady Highlanders (40-3) would be to do their best to finish on top of the their district and perhaps steal a couple playoff victories. Madison wasn't having any such low-ball, pessimistic ranting. After all, you start the season hoping your team closes out the year with a victory, which of course means you finished as the best team.

Do you know what was so special about these Lady Highlanders taking the big prize tonight? Well, back in early August, the team and those close to them, were really the only people who thought they'd be standing on the first place podium tonight. Sure, it was a dream, but they were dead set on waking everyone up by making the 2014 version of championship Lady Highlander volleyball a reality.

Set one was christened by talented Lady Knights outside hitter, Ashlynn Dunbar, as she took a feed from Brianna Garcia and proceeded to paint the back line. Bella Pinton then took a feed from tournament MVP, Kendall Cook, and tied things up with a kill of her own. It was back and forth until The Woodlands tallied six points in a row with Julia Pasch starting and then finishing the surge, with a kill and a block of the high flying Dunbar.

Clear Falls all-everything outside hitter, Alyssa Enneking along with Dunbar, kept things close enough to make The Woodlands fans nervous, but Cook setting her teammates up time and again prevented the Lady Knights from breaking through, and the Lady Highlanders took the first set on a Courtney Quinn slam set up yet again, by Cook.

Pasch came through early in the second set with two kills, giving The Woodlands the lead at 5-4. An uncharacteristic Dunbar mis-hit and a net violation, created some breathing room for the Lady Highlanders, and after three Cook to Rachel Reed successful connections, the lead was now 13-8.

Enneking and Dunbar then traded six points with Cook and Hickman, and after a Woodlands violation, the Lady Knights had pulled even at 21. Cook then placed a seeing eye dump perfectly in between four Lady Knight defenders. Pasch added a kill and a block and the Lady Highlanders won the set on a Clear Falls net violation.

Clear Falls fought hard in the third set; after a see-saw battle they took control on a Dunbar dump at 18-16. Dunbar and Enneking scored two more preventing The Woodlands from puncturing the Lady Knights armor the rest of the way, as Garcia closed out the set with a kill made possible by a perfect feed from Sophie Schaff.

Set four was a virtual war as both teams fought tooth and nail. Clear Falls had a late 23-22 lead with the serve, but another Cook/CQ connection tied it up. A Dunbar kill then went wide and The Woodlands had match point. Dunbar came through for the Lady Knights with two kills, earning her team a match point of their own.

Staring at another five set match did not appear to be appealing to Pasch, so she hammered a spike home knotting the score at 25. The final two points of the season were identical Cook to Pinton kills, and just like last year at this time, the Lady Highlanders met on the floor with one big embrace sharing tears of joy.

Cook was an absolute setting machine with 43 assists to go along with nine kills and eight digs. Courtney Quinn had seven kills and 15 digs. Pasch had 13 kills, four assists, three digs and four blocks. Reed led the team in kills with 17, accompanied by five huge blocks. Codi Lee sacrificed her body 14 times, half of which were not just your garden variety digs. We'll call them head first slides on her face on the hardwood keeping valuable points alive earning her the Zamboni Award. Hannah Hickman had three kills and four blocks. Hailey Reier had 13 digs and three assists. Pinton collected nine kills, three digs and three blocks. Colby Quinn had nine digs to go along with her usual solid serving.

Dunbar and Enneking had 26 and 23 kills respectively for Clear Falls.

Coach Madison talked about her players...

"These kids believed they could win from the very beginning. When you believe you can win, your mind is a powerful thing. All of the sports at The Woodlands believe they can win," said Coach Madison.

Looking forward to the 2015 volleyball season, the Lady Highlanders will be taking a big hit as they lose Cook, Lee, Reed, Courtney Quinn and Pasch. However, they will still have Reier, Colby Quinn, Hickman, Grey Kennedy and Pinton. Plus, they have a whole new crop of sub-varsity players who are not too familiar with losing either.

The 2015 team will believe they can keep the tradition going. Whatever ingenious slogan Madison and her coaches think up, it's probably not good money to bet against this program.

The new team is not a new team any more, but they have most assuredly made their dream come true.