The Wimberley Texan volleyball express continues to chug along as they notched two more victories on their belt this past week in dominating fashion. The Texans swept the Pflugerville Panthers 3-0 (25-8, 25-6, 25-12) before sweeping the Burnet Bulldogs 3-0 (25-16, 25- 19, 25-12) as Wimberley improved their record to 19-6 overall while going 8-1 in their last nine games and dropping just two sets. Following a rough showing in the final day of the Glen Rose tournament, the Texans took major jumps in progress while playing against tough competition. For Head Volleyball Coach Stephanie Barthels, the team has been working and learning from the past mistakes, which has seen the Texans learn from those errors and translate them onto the court. “I’m seeing a big step forward with this team,” Barthels said. “At practice, we are trying to turn our focus after a game to what we need to grow, what we need to learn and what we need to work on. We are doing that in practice the next day and writing it down while making sure we are doing drills that need to be focused on.” From there, Wimberley’s rocky start has started to smooth out as the Texans inch closer to their goal of making a deep playoff run. “Instead of the roller coaster of a season that we were starting on, I’m seeing us going forward,” Barthels said. “I tell the girls that there are three parts to a season, pre-season, district and post-season with our goal to make it to state. It doesn’t matter if you lose every game in preseason as long as you are focused on what we are trying to accomplish as you get further and further along you are going to be successful… As long as we are fixing those little kinks, we are going to be successful, which our record is showing and our girls work hard towards it.” One of signs of progress for the Texans has been the team’s control of the ball while also improving their blocking. “Our ball control has gotten better,” Barthels said. “One of the things that I’m seeing is that our setting and hitter connection has really improved, which we have been working on. Our offside block coverage has gotten better. We started off the season being spectators and now we are getting down low, being able to run through balls, and run an offense out of it, so we have really stepped up our game.”
Despite having a number of underclassmen on the team, all of them have shown signs of major improvement of their game.
“The first one for sure is Mariah McCoy,” Barthels said. “She has done a great job of owning the net when she is on the court. Our libero, Rhaegan Masur, has been doing a phenomenal job in the back row. Her serving and defense has come along. Those two have been playing awesome at the tournament (Kerrville)... Lilli Sandolval also did a fantastic job at the tournament for us as well.”
This is a big difference from the first game against Buda Johnson where the Jaguars swept the Texans. Adjusting to the speed of the game was a major hurdle.
But the quick adjustments, along with the tutoring of the upperclassmen, have seen the younger players improve.
“It’s crazy because you can see it in the first game against Buda Johnson,” Barthels said. “The jump from middle school volleyball to 6A volleyball was a huge shock to them… It was a big change for them, but they have handled it like it was nothing. After the first timeout, it was ‘just play volleyball.’ These girls all play club volleyball, which helps a little bit, because it is high level competition. But sometimes it’s different when you are wearing your own school name across your jersey, which adds more pressure than club. But they have held their own, which is helped by the older girls talking to them and being one big unit.”
The Texans will wrap up non-district play on the road against Cedar Creek with the game starting after the Wimberley View’s time of press.
Wimberley then kicks off district play with a Top 25 showdown between the No. 6 ranked Texans and their rivals in the Fredericksburg Battlin Billies, who are ranked No. 19 in the state rankings.
The Billies will be looking to knock the Texans off their perch in the district race while avenging their playoff loss to Wimberley in the Regional Quarterfinals last year.
Tip-off is at 6 p.m. at Texan Gym on Friday.
