8/7/2019 Volleyball vs. Canyon-Randall

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Q Volleyball season endsafter ve-match battle inRegional TournamentBy Dominic GenettiThe Community News

Shooting off the quick hand of Randall Highs Libby Strickland, thecream-colored leather volleyball bul-leted toward the oor.

Aledo senior Taylor Brown triedto stop the laser blast by divingto the McMurry University hard- wood court, but there was nothingshe could do. As the ball landed in bounds sealing victory for the Lady Raiders, the freckle-faced libero of the Ladycats couldnt hide the tearsthat began to ow from her eyes.

VOLLEYBALL

Defending state champs knock out Ladycats

JIM SHARRATT/SPECIAL TO THE COMMUNITY NEW

Senior Taylor Brown sets up for a kill in the Regional semifinal game againstCanyon Randall on Friday, Nov. 13. Also shown is senior Christa Daniel.

Throughout the entire battle,the Lady Raiders could only tie theLadycats a total of three times. Aledogathered 15 points before Randallaccumulated 10. One of the longest volleys of the match was 15.3-sec-onds long and it put the Ladycatsahead 16-10.

Randall didnt have a slight hotspot in the match. The Lady Raidersfroze Aledo after the Ladycats took a20-13 lead which allowed Randall totie the match at 20. Aledo broke thetie, but Randall battled back to tiethe match again at 23 summoningthe same suspense from match two.

It was now down to a gain of twopoints. Two points for Aledo wouldgive the Ladycats the win and tie thegame 2-2. Two points for Randall would give the Lady Raiders thematch and game victory.

Aledo pulled a 24-23 lead on a

12.3-second volley and earned their25th point on their next serve.

The Ladycats forced a decisivematch ve with a 25-23 victory.

Match 5:Aledo 13, Randall 15

This was it. The nal match.The winner would move on and

play the next day. The losers season

would be over and they would haveto wait until next season.

Randall was defending a statechampionship, they were set for battle. The last time Aledo wentve matches was weeks earlier onthe road against Azle. That deci-sive match gave Aledo Head CoachKathy Goings her 400th career winso the Ladycats had some positivity

in the do or die competition.There was a total of 28 serves in

the match and all but one of themsaw either a gained lead or a tie.

Aledo broke ties seven times totake the lead. Randall broke six tiesto take the lead.

The Ladycats had a 12-11 leadthat the Lady Raiders eventually stole with a 12-12 tie and a 13-12lead. They were just two po ints away

from victory and then Aledo re-tiedthe match at 13.

On a 4.3-second volley, Randallpulled ahead 14-13 and on the nextserve scored the winning point to win the match 15-13 and the game3-2.

It was the nal game in an Aledouniform for Brown, Jacobs, Danieland Lindsey Baird.

The season was over. While the Canyon-Randall Lady

Raiders celebrated their game one victory of the Regional Tournament,the Aledo Ladycats, whose tears were joyous in their powerful vic-tories over Granbury and longtimerival Stephenville, shed tears over aloss that took ve matches to declarea winner.

Match 1:Aledo 25, Randall 21

The Ladycats had quite theopponent for their rst game of theRegional Tournament.

Aledo hadnt been to the tour-nament since 2008 and to moveforward in the competition hosted by Abilenes McMurry University they were going to have to eliminatethe defending state champions; theRandall High School Lady Raidersof Canyon, Texas.

All Aledo needed was three winsover Randall and they would advanceto the tournament nals. And theteams play in the rst match pointed

to positivity.It was all Ladycats in the rst battle. Aledo ran away with thematch early on boasting a 14-5lead. Thanks to powerful kills fromsophomore Briana Sharratt, juniorTyler Gromann and senior JordanJacobs, the Ladycats were able tokeep Randalls points low.

The Lady Radiers didnt accu-mulate 10 points until a 12.9-second volley gave them the double digits, but by that point, Aledo already had18 points on the board. And they werent done there.

With consistent sets from sopho-more Mallory Powell and a dominat-ing defense from junior ShannonTaylor, and Brown, the Ladycatspulled ahead and had a 23-18 lead.

Aledo had a 23-20 lead on a 5.5-second volley and it was the clos-est Randall got to catching up tothe Ladycats before the orange and black took the match one victory 25-21.

Match 2:Aledo 23, Randall 25

It was practically a repeat of match one.

There was dominance, a latecomeback attempt and a victory that caused the players to scream inexcitement. Only thing was that thismatch had a couple ties mixed inand it didnt favor Aledo.

Every serve either tied the matchor shifted the lead between the 4A schools, but it was Randall who would break the trend and begin tostorm away with a lead.

The Lady Raiders had an 11-9lead when they began to take controlof the match. Aledo tried to creep back keeping the score difference atthree, four, and sometimes one andtwo.

The quick feet of senior ChirstaDaniel kept volleys alive and long. Attimes the 57 senior had to run intothe scorers table and bleachers just

to keep the Ladycats going. A 14-sec-ond volley that tied the game at 18could have had a different outcomeif it wasnt for Daniels range whichexpanded throughout the Kimbrell Arena.

Aledo battled back and forced thematch to be tied at 21 and 22 beforethey took a suspenseful 23-22 lead.

Randall, though, were statechampions in volleyball for a rea-son.

The Lady Raiders tied the gameat 23, scored two more points and won the match 25-23.

Match 3:Aledo 16, Randall 25

Now it was getting interesting.The game was tied 1-1 and a

match three victory would give the winner a game lead with only onemore win needed to advance.

After the match was tied four dif-ferent times, it was Aledo who pulledin front after they broke a 4-4 tieon a 4.9-second volley. But Randall would only trail on average by two.The largest lead the Ladycats had was a 10-6 lead after a 5.9-second volley.

Aledo held the lead into theirtwelfth point before Randall tied thematch.

The Lady Radiers broke ahead13-12 and the Ladycats responded by retying the game at 13. Unfortunately

for Aledo, they would only earn threemore points in the match and wouldnot regain the lead.

For ve straight serves, Aledo was stuck on 13 points as Randallincreased their lead to 18-13. TheLadycats earned their 14th point ona 16.5-second volley and their 15thpoint on a 3.9-second volley. And it was with that point they would stay stuck again.

Another stretch of ve serves went to the Lady Raiders as they

increased their lead 24-15. A 4.1 vol-ley gave Aledo their 16th point, butthe next serve gave Randall the vic-tory, 25-16 and the game lead 2-1

.Match 4:Aledo 25, Randall 23

In the jungles of Asia, realBearcats are known to howl to maketheir presence known to the other wildlife in the area.

A compassion to that trait could

also be made about Aledos play inthe fourth match of the game. TheLadycats didnt howl per-se, but they did speak loudly with hard slaps andkills to the volleyball.

With Randall up 2-1 in the game,the Ladycats had to win to keeptheir season alive. And to make thatstatement clear, Aledo did not allowRandall to have a lead the entirematch.

JIM SHARRATT/SPECIAL TO THE COMMUNITY NEWS

Senior Jordan Jacobs gives her allon a serve in the regional semifinalgame.