VOLLEYBALL: The Woodlands goes undefeated in first day of Magnolia Volley-Battle

MAGNOLIA, Texas — The Woodlands Lady Highlanders took on day one of the Magnolia Volley-Battle tournament, beating St. Stephens 25-13, 25-14; Willis 25-20, 25-19; Hutto 25-22, 25-13.

The Lady Highlanders started out the day falling 0-2 to the St. Stephens Spartans at the beginning of set 1. After waking up a bit, they would catch up to tie the game at 9-9. Senior outside hitter Hailey Reier served 13 in a row, including 4 aces to bring the score up to 22-10. Setter Sophie Walls and middle blocker AJ Koele, both sophomores aided in the rally, running a quick offense out of the middle. The Woodlands took the first set, 25-13.

The Lady Highlanders started with the serve in set 2, and senior setter Grey Kennedy, took advantage of the opportunity and started off with an ace. To go with the quick offense from the sophomore setter and middle blocker, Kennedy and senior middle blocker, Hannah Hickman, also ran quick offense out of the middle. The Lady Spartan defense could not quite keep up with quick plays that The Woodlands were running. Senior outside hitter, Bella Pinton took advantage of the hole in St. Stephen’s defense by strategically placing multiple roll shots in the middle of the court where the defense could not get to fast enough. Along with Koele’s quick offense, she also blocked well, with two in a row to bring the score up to 21-12. To round out the match, sophomore Skylar Scott served 3 in a row to bring the final to 25-14.

After the first match, head coach Terri Wade commented on her team playing their first match at 8 am...

“We still needed a little time to wake up, for sure. We had some errors that we should eliminate. But, it is hard to wake up for the first game. We definitely started out the first match of this tournament better than our last, so that’s an improvement.”

The Lady Highlanders faced a little more competition in match 2 versus Willis. The first set was tied 4-4 before The Woodlands pulled ahead 9-4 on great serving by Reier and help from a couple of Willis errors. The quick offensive attack for the Lady Highlanders continued from match 1, despite having to work around a big blocking presence from Willis. The quickness of the offense kept the Lady Highlanders ahead in the set, not letting Willis get within 2 points the remainder of the set. Wells put up a great blocking presence on the front row. The set ended 25-20, The Woodlands, after two errors by Willis.

The second set was closer than the first, as the teams traded points until the score was tied 8-8. Kennedy rotated to the back row and helped The Woodlands pull ahead 13-8 by serving 5 in a row, including 1 ace. That ended up being what the Highlanders needed to stay ahead the rest of the set. Willis continued to play tough, despite being down with a string of several plays in a row, where both sides made crazy saves to keep the rallies alive. Just as her serving was what push the Lady Highlanders ahead earlier in set, Kennedy came up to serve for match point. She delivered an ace to end the set 25-19.

The Hutto Lady Hippos were the last opponent of the day for the Lady Highlanders. The start of set 1 stayed close until the score was tied, 6-6. Pinton with 2 kills, Hickman with 3, and 2 hitting errors by Hutto, forced the Lady Hippo coach to call a timeout down 14-8. The Woodlands kept a commanding lead for most of the rest of the set, until Hutto called their second time out at 22-16. A few errors and some miscommunication for the Lady Highlanders let the Lady Hippos get up to 22 points. But then on set point, freshman right side hitter Courtney Heiser kit a kill down the line to end the set 25-22.

Set 2 was dominated by the youngsters for The Woodlands. AJ Koele and Heiser combined to lead the team’s offense. The two also set up a great block that caused the Hutto hitters to try and hit around them, resulting in a lot of Lady Hippo hitting errors. The Lady Highlanders took set 2, 25-13, and Coach Wade had only good things to say about her young players.

“I think they did really well. Courtney has really stepped up and added to our offense. She’s doing a really good job. Our goal is to be more efficient and to cut back on errors, and I think Courtney did a really good job of putting the ball away and being more efficient.”

The Lady Highlanders went undefeated in their pool for day one of the Magnolia Volley-Battle. They advance to Pool One for day 2 of the tournament tomorrow, where they’ll play at 8, 10, and 1. Only one other team has been determined for tomorrow’s pool, and it just happens to be a cross-town rival, the Oak Ridge Lady War Eagles. The two will meet for the final match of the morning session at 1:00 pm. The other two teams in the pool will be determined after today’s two afternoon sessions.