After a more than impressive season, the Wimberley Lady Texans found themselves 2nd in district with a 32-7 record good enough to give them a first round playoff game at home against the Gonzales Lady Apaches on Monday night.
The Lady Texans pick right up where they left off from the regular season as they swept the Lady Apaches in a clean 3 sets (25-16) (25-13) (25-7).
Set one started off close and was a back and forth match early on with the Lady Apaches winning some long rallies and gaining momentum to keep them in the game.
“It is key to win long rallies,” Head Coach Stephanie Barthels said. “To not win those is really disappointing, you can really knock down the other team by winning those.”
With the score tied 11-11 Wimberley showed how deep of a team they are with 5 different Wimberley hitters getting a kill in the next 6 points going up 1713 “It’s hard to guard us, we have every weapon available and can go to anyone at any time,” Barthels said.
Wimberley never looked back after the run and took the set 25-16.
In the second set Wimberley started off slow going down early in the set, but with two huge back to back kills by Laney Hennessee as Wimberley took the lead and never gave it back to Gonzales in an uncontested set winning 25-13.
Set three was where Wimberley found themselves only giving up seven points to a team that was fighting to keep their season alive winning 25-7 and sending Gonzales home and Wimberley to the second round.
Laney Hennessee finished the game with 14 kills with Addison Parks and Mariah McCoy adding 8 each assisted by Jesse Weeks who finished the game with 25 assists.
On Thursday night, Wimberley played their round two matchup against the El Campo Lady Ricebirds(13-20) in Smithville. Wimberley continued to steam roll on as they swept the Lady Ricebirds (25-19) (25-18) (25-8) In the first set, the Lady Ricebirds came out loud with a lot of energy showing that they were not a team that Wimberley could ease on by and that they deserved to be there as for the first set they were always in the rearview mirror. Wimberley found themselves up 18-16 and with the set on the line The Lady Texans had back to back kills, giving them a fourpoint cushion, and were able to close out the first set winning 25-18.
The second set was back and forth as there were eight lead changes before they were all tied up at 15 a piece. As Barthels has stated before, she preaches playing set in small matches to five and that is exactly what this Wimberley team did going on a 5-0 run and forcing the Ricebirds to call a timeout as they now quickly trailed 2015. Wimberley was able to close out the set 25-19.
In the third set is where Wimberley found their best play again on the offense and defensive side with Parks and Hennessee racking up 3 blocks each and #8 Kenslee Brown and #6 Mariah McCoy adding one each. On the offensive side they were on fire and played smart with 9 kills with only two hitting errors easily taking the set 25-8.
“They got gassed and we didn’t,” Barthels said. “(Our girls) are all trained outside of school volleyball and that helps us. I feel confident and have faith in these girls.”
The Lady Texans shared the ball well this game as every Wimberley hitter had four or more kills with Hennessee leading the way with 12 assisted by Weeks who ended with 18 assists and Peoples adding 14 more assists to the total.
The Lady Texans (34-7) will advance on to the third round to play against The Bellville Brahmas (38-8) in Yoakum on Tuesday, Nov. 14 at 6:30 p.m.
