Two of Canyon ISD’s three powerful volleyball programs made it clean sweeps in the UIL High School playoffs during second round action Monday in the Permian Basin.
The Randall Lady Raiders, the state runner-up out of Class 4A Division II the past two years, are headed to the regional semifinals, after getting a quick three-set sweep of Fabens, 25-9, 25-13, 25-11, on Monday in Seminole.
“It’s been an interesting few days for us,” Randall head coach Karli Morrison said. “We had an injury coming off are first playoff win last week and another player sick coming into this game. I thought the team did a great job of overcoming that and showing up. They controlled everything they could and kept the game in front of them. We had really good energy and attacked the new. I was proud of how we handled everything.”
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Randall was never in doubt getting out to a fast tone-setting first set to take the momentum and never allowing Fabens (15-14) in the match.
Freshman Chloe Brown engineered the Lady Raiders dominating effort. Brown paced a team effort on offense with a game-high 12 kills and did her job on the defensive side with 10 digs for a double-double. Teammate Bennet Moore played with quite the spark passing out 15 assists to go with eight digs and was served up a game-high eight aces for a Randall team that finished with 16 on the afternoon.
Amber Matthews was all over the front row with nine kills and two blocks, Nevaeh Conner added eight kills with five digs and Kambree Gonzalez was her typical self tallying nine digs.
“I was really happy how we served the ball the entire match,” Morrison said. “That allowed us to have easier balls to score on and we shared the ball really well. Bennett (Moore) was amazing with eight aces and the offense, which has carried us all year, did a great job. Our hitters did extremely well. Amber Matthews did great things and we never allowed them to hit deep on us. We just controlled the tempo.”
The Lady Raiders (28-14) advance to the Division II regional semifinals where they will now face the Krum (24-16-1) at 5 p.m. on Thursday at Vernon High School. Krum defeated Brock in its second round matchup Tuesday, 26-24, 25-21, 25-23.
West Plains was also in action Monday.
The Lady Wolves had a stiffer test, however, were able to get by a gutsy El Paso Ysleta squad with a three-set sweep, 25-22, 25-23, 25-21, to claim the Class 4A Division I regional quarterfinal championship at Andrews High School.
This is the fourth straight year the Lady Wolves have advanced to the third round of the postseason since opening the program.
“I think El Paso Ysleta was a very good team,” West Plains head coach Kaitlyn Cornelius said. “They were in this round for a reason and had talented hitters. I think we made some mistakes. We lost some momentum at some points of the match but we never lost focus and we battled back. We served the ball well, we were aggressive and disciplined on defense. Give Ysleta credit, they made us work for it, but we were able to get the win and another gold ball.”
West Plains (32-11) advance to the regional semifinals and will get a rematch with the Division I defending state champions, Decatur (38-7) at 5 p.m. Thursday at Childress High School.
The Lady Eagles (38-7), coached by Fort Elliott and West Texas A&M graduate Stormi (Lancaster) Snider, soared past Stephenville on Monday, 25-11, 25-15, 25-18.
McNeese State commit and West Plains middle blocker Aaniyah Kitchen made a huge difference on the front row. The athletic senior powered the offense with a team-best 16 kills and made her presence known on defense with four kills as well as adding two aces.
Complimenting Kitchen was Kynzie Ward and Teagan Hudson. Ward followed with nine kills and Hudson chipped in with seven kills and three blocks.
A good offense can’t run without great passing and that’s what Cecilia Murillo and Bella Wineberg provided. Murillo led West Plains with 18 assists and Wineberg chipped in with 13. On the defensive side, Wineberg hit the floor for 12 digs to tally a double-double performance. Idaly Sotelo put her stamp on a great back row outing getting a team-high 20 digs that helped seal the victory.
“Aaniyah had a great game,” Cornelius said. “She was the go-to for us and only had one error in all three sets. Idaly did a great job on the back row and our serve/receive was fantastic. There were moments that were close but we found ways to score and everyone stepped up. We kept our composure even at times when it was hard to.”
