SMITHSON VALLEY — Like their rivals over at New Braunfels, the Canyon Cougarettes turned a plodding start into a hurricane-like finish in their Class 4A area-round volleyball playoff against Kerrville Tivy.
After eking out a two-point victory in the first game, the Cougarettes went into overdrive, sending the Lady Antlers packing with a 25-23, 25-13, 25-13 victory Tuesday night at Smithson Valley’s Ranger Gym.
Brandie DeBacker had nine kills and 12 digs and Lark Miller had six kills, four aces and a block for the sixth-ranked Cougarettes (33-7), who advanced to play Pflugerville Connally in a regional quarterfinal. The game has tentatively been set for 7 p.m. Thursday at Hays. Kaitlin Overby and Caroline Thomas each had five kills for the 22nd-ranked Lady Antlers, who ended their season 26-7.
Tivy used its height at the net to post block after block and forged a 15-10 lead over the Cougars in the opening game. But Canyon fought back, edging ahead 18-17, and the teams exchanged leads down the stretch. Tivy went up 22-20, but Canyon won a fierce defensive exchange with a kill by Nicole Johnson and added a kill by Miller to tie it 22-all.
A tip by Kerrville’s Bethany Brown put the Antlers ahead, but a serve went out of bounds and Brown hit another ball out, giving Canyon a one-point lead. After a Kerrville time out, DeBacker’s dink into Tivy’s unguarded middle gave the Cougarettes the lead and the game.
“I think that it was all about playing that first playoff game,” Canyon coach Heather Sanders said of her team’s start. “They’ve been jacked up all day. But after we got that first one under our belts, we settled in.”
The Cougarettes raced out to a 12-l lead in the second game, as their serve-receive went into high gear. Chelsea Grayson had two aces and Amanda Jonas had three during the biggest run by either team in the match, which also included a kill and block by Miller, and kills by Johnson, Brittani Hackfeld, DeBacker and Tara Smith.
The kills kept coming against the Antlers, who twice called for time outs to settle down. Brown got Kerrville’s first kill of the game, cutting it to 12-2 and a block and tip-in by Karly Cody made it 13-4. But Canyon forged ahead again, getting a kill by Johnson, a block by Miller and an ace by Hackfeld for a 19-6 lead. Canyon won the game easily and coasted into the third having all the momentum.
“In the first game it was block after block after block and we could never get anything going offensively,” Sanders said. “Everybody was trying to do everyone else’s job, and we just needed to settle down a bit.
“We started playing their hitters better, and when the points were on the line, we made some tremendous defensive plays.”
Canyon seemed to win all of those, as balls that never should have been dug up effortlessly found their way back over the net. Hackfeld had 17 digs, DeBacker and Jonas had 12 each and Smith had 10. Along with the aces, it was a mental back-breaker for the Antlers, who never really challenged the rest of the way. Canyon led 12-4 and 17-10 in the finale, and Miller’s four consecutive aces ended the match.
“That’s a big deficit to come back from, but it wasn’t unable to be overcome,” Sanders said. “At the end of the first game, we talked to the girls about settling down. Once we got the first one, they did that.”
Johnson had seven kills, Smith had 23 assists and Jonas added three aces for the Cougarettes. Hannah Schwarz had 15 assists, eight digs and an ace; Cody had 3.2 blocks and Brown had three for the Antlers, who also had eight digs by Rachael Ashley.
“The first game was kind of tense, but we came together,” Smith said. “We still had to fight in the second game because they came back. We just had to cut down our errors and play our game.”
Miller said after Canyon erased the errors, the rest took care of itself.
“In the first game we had 10 errors and we always strive to stay under seven,” she said. “We cleaned it up. We focused on getting our heads in the game and making no unforced errors. When we did, we were able to play our game. When we got ahead, we weren’t playing scared. We were pretty comfortable and made fewer errors the further ahead we got.”
