Marble Falls volleyball sweeps Florence
CAPTION: Senior Sadie Harris, sophomore Kenadi Dalton and senior Leah Nash the Lady Mustangs contribute to a program sweep of Florence where the Marble Falls teams won every match in straight sets. Photo by Jennifer Fierro/TexasChalkTalk.com
The Marble Falls High School varsity volleyball team defeated Florence 25-19, 25-15, 25-13 Sept. 8.
The varsity’s win completed a program sweep of the Lady Buffs where each Marble Falls squad won in straight sets. In all, that’s seven games.
“It was a big night for us. It was a big momentum shift for us,” head coach Kait Goertz said. “It’s been five years since we won in three sets. It’s more than the win; it’s the pieces.”
The Lady Mustangs won a single match at the Little River Academy tournament and had a chance at two more but couldn’t put it all together to do so, Goertz said. Then losses to Llano Sept. 1 and to Fredericksburg Sept. 5, which qualified for the playoffs in 2022, forced the Lady Mustangs to dig deeper.
“There was a mental barrier,” Goertz said. “Part of it was they had to learn it the hard way. There were games we should have won and didn’t. Sometimes it takes that punch in the gut for you to understand. ‘I’m not letting that happen again.’ It’s that punch in the gut to learn we have to go fight for it.”
After the Lady Mustangs won the second set against Florence, Goertz said her players began to enjoy the win a little early. So she challenged them to stay in the moment and close out the opponent.
“Every player who was on the court for us wanted that win,” the coach said. “I told them we still have to go win. Florence is a scrappy team. The girls did a great job of going out and taking care of business.”
She noted that winning a best-of-five match instead of a tournament match is a different feeling for many reasons.
“Volleyball is a game of momentum,” she said. “When you’re playing multiple games in a day, it’s easy to move on after a win or a loss at tournaments. In (best-of-five) matches, you leave it all out there. You’re not trying to conserve energy for a match later. It’s different.”
As happy as she was for her players, Goertz said there’s still much to play for, especially with District 24-4A play starting in two weeks.
“Nothing matters until Sept. 22,” she said. “We want to peak at the right time. We’ve had lots of bad luck. We’re headed in the right direction; things are going the way we want. I’m not satisfied. I want to go out and get a win.”
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