Category: Volleyball

by Mike Lee, Special to Big Country Preps

FEATURE: Bluekatts, Allen grow into district leaders in three years

Photos courtesy of ColemanToday.com

Abbi Allen laughs when asked about her initial motivation for joining the fledgling Coleman High School volleyball program three years ago. After all, she had played basketball since age 7 and already was an accomplished player. Why try a new sport you’ve never played?

“If you want to know the truth, if you don’t play volleyball at Coleman in the fall, you have to run cross country. And cross country just isn’t my cup of tea,” said Allen, now a third-year starter for the Coleman Bluekatts volleyball team.

“I always thought volleyball could be fun, and it has been. So that made it like a double bonus.”

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by Evan Ren

GAME STORY: Bangs rallies to top rival Early in five sets

The Bangs Lady Dragons narrowly defeat the Early Lady Horns on Tuesday as the local rivalry ignited for the first time this season. 

The Lady Dragons notch their second district win, 23-25, 25-21, 23-25, 25-16, 15-5 in a late comeback.

 “I am so proud of the girls, they got stuck in the third set, down by eight points and they fought, coming within two points of the win,” Bangs coach Cheyanne Lovelady said. “It just impresses me to see a team that doesn’t fold when competition gets heated.”

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by Daniel Youngblood

GAME STORY: Senior-led Cooper volleyball team sweeps rival Abilene High

 The senior-laden Cooper volleyball team showed its maturity Tuesday, sweeping crosstown rival Abilene High on its home floor to stay perfect at 4-0.

The Lady Cougars, who have yet to drop a set this season, got off a to a dominant start, winning Game 1 by a 25-9 margin before grinding out a couple of 25-23 wins in the final two games to close out the match in three.

After being overwhelmed in the early going, the much younger Lady Eagles (1-3) rebounded to challenge CHS, but each time the Lady Coogs needed a point, they got it — a trend coach Nora Campbell attributed to her team’s experience.

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by Zach Duncan, Special to Big Country Preps

FEATURE: Stephenville’s Matthews has worked her way into being one of the area’s top players

From the moment she showed up at Stephenville last year, Jaylee Matthews hasn’t shied away from putting in work.

As a then-sophomore moving from Seminole, Matthews knew the Honeybees’ program was steeped in tradition. Floor time would be earned, not given.   

“I showed up every day and worked hard to prove myself,” Matthews recalled. “I would say I fit in pretty good with the team now, and these girls have become some of my best friends.”  

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by Mike Lee, Special to Big Country Preps

FEATURE: From a novice to a natural: Clyde’s Underwood never comes off the volleyball court

Photos by Stan West, Rachel Laughlin and Toni Brockway

Liz Underwood was focused on basketball as a sixth-grader at Clyde. That is, until new Clyde High School volleyball coach Laura Carr asked her to join a traveling club team.

“She wanted to play on a traveling volleyball team with girls in the grade above me,” Underwood said. “She said she needed a middle blocker. I was thinking to myself, ‘I don’t even know what a middle blocker is.’ But she’s the coach, and she asked me so I said, ‘Yes.’ ”

At her first practice, Underwood realized that volleyball was truly a team sport in which players relied on each other’s skills.

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by Evan Ren

Big Country Volleyball Statistical Leaders (through Sept. 21)

Big Country Preps is publishing area volleyball statistical leaders each Tuesday at 7 p.m.

This database will be continually updated for our subscribers throughout the remainder of the season, using only those statistics submitted by area coaches.

Teams that send in their statistics after deadline will be added to the lists below as we continually update the database.

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by Evan Ren

BIG COUNTRY PREPS PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Snyder defensive specialist snags this week’s award

Benitez photo courtesy of Kassi Westermann

While a libero seldom gets as much attention as volleyball’s glamour positions up front, there are times when these defensive specialists make themselves so valuable they can’t be ignored, even in a losing effort.

That was the case last week with Snyder junior Abby Benitez in a pair of dual matches against Monahans and Odessa Permian on Tuesday, followed by another against Jim Ned and Denver City on Saturday.  The Lady Tigers didn’t register a single win, but Benitez’s hustle was astonishing enough to earn her our Big Country Preps Player of the Week award for  the week ending Sept. 19.

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by Daniel Youngblood

GAME STORY: Cooper volleyball sweeps scrappy Clyde squad to open season

Opening its season against a Clyde squad that already had 14 matches under its belt, the Cooper volleyball team was tested early in Tuesday’s nondistrict showdown at Cougar Gym.

But the veteran Lady Cougars proved up to the challenge in a 25-23, 25-21, 25-13 sweep of the Lady Bulldogs.

Ending a long wait after the start its season was delayed a month by COVID-19, Cooper shook off any ring rust quickly, finding its offensive rhythm in the Game 3 to put the match away in style.

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by Zach Duncan, Special to Big Country Preps

FEATURE: Sweetwater volleyball odyssey beyond Bell’s experience

Although only in her second year at Sweetwater, Mitzi Bell has been coaching volleyball for almost a quarter century.  

However, no previous experience could have prepared her for what has been a rollercoaster 2020 campaign. From impressive summer workout numbers to then losing senior setter Mia Valdez for extended time due to injury.  

From finally playing matches that count to having nine players quarantining after a positive COVID-19 case. From orchestrating sub-varsity workouts in separate gyms to Saturday when all the Lady Mustangs were finally on the same court. 

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by Evan Ren

Big Country Volleyball Statistical Leaders (through Sept. 14)

Big Country Preps is publishing area volleyball statistical leaders each Tuesday at 7 p.m.

This database will be continually updated for our subscribers throughout the remainder of the season, using only those statistics submitted by area coaches.

Teams that do not submit their statistics in a given week will not be listed when our stats are posted, but will be added to the lists below as they are received in the coming days. 

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by Staff Report

GAME STORY: Dublin overwhelms Early Lady Horns in straight sets at start of district play 

By Seth LaRue (special to Big Country Preps)

The Dublin Lady Lions rebounded from two consecutive losses in pre-district play with a convincing defeat of the Early Lady Horns on Tuesday at the Early Longhorn Gym. 

The Lady Lions controlled the match from the onset with a first set win, 25-21, and never once lost stride. They proceeded to win the next two sets 25-20 and 25-22, respectively. 

Dublin Coach Kaitlyn Embry had nothing but praise for her varsity team saying, “They did such a good job. They pushed through, they never let up and it’s everything we really have been working hard for in preseason that actually showed up on the court tonight.”

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by Zach Duncan, Special to Big Country Preps

FEATURE: Bangs standout Jacee Miller cleared to return for Lady Dragons

Photo courtesy of Heather Nix Photography

Jacee Miller isn’t used to watching the action from afar.   

The Bangs junior is a four-sport standout who has been on varsity since she began high school. Miller never leaves the floor for the Lady Dragons’ volleyball team.  

But after snapping her fibula and tearing a ligament during a summer trip to the beach, the vocal Miller has been forced to do all her encouraging and observing from the sidelines.  

“It’s a very different perspective,” Miller said. “Watching my team grow and watching its up and downs has helped me see what I can do when I come back.”  

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by Evan Ren

FEATURE: Scottish volleyball experience agreed with Jim Ned senior

No one could have imagined when Shelby Leavenworth moved from Tuscola to Edinburgh, Scotland, as an eighth-grader that she would return four years later as a much improved volleyball player with a wealth of international experience.

Leavenworth’s family moved back to Tuscola in July. Now as a Jim Ned High School senior outside hitter, the 6-foot-1 Leavenworth has been a pleasant and perhaps unexpected surprise for the 6-1 Lady Indians.

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by Evan Ren

Big Country Volleyball Statistical Leaders (through Sept. 7)

Big Country Preps will publish area volleyball statistical leaders each Tuesday at 7 p.m.

This database will be continually updated for our subscribers throughout the remainder of the season, using only those statistics submitted by area coaches.

Teams that do not submit their statistics in a given week will not be listed when our stats are posted, but will be added to the lists below as they are received in the coming days. 

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by Brandon McAuliffe

GAME STORY: Albany volleyball sweeps Woodson in nondistrict action

ALBANY — With Tuesday’s storms rattling the walls of Albany’s Lion Gymnasium, the AHS volleyball team brought its own thunder in a nondistrict sweep of Class 1A Woodson.

The Lady Lions claimed a 25-9, 25-7, 25-13 win over the Lady Longhorns, dominating the match from beginning to end and showing why they’re ranked No. 9 in the state in Class 2A.

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