Win against Lampasas yields Marble Falls volleyball its first district victory
CAPTION: Marble Falls senior setter Ava Carter and the Lady Mustangs won a district match to end a 62–match losing streak in district play. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School volleyball team defeated Lampasas 25-23, 25-14, 25-23 Oct. 6 for its first victory in District 24-4A play.
The win snapped a 62-match losing streak in district play dating back to September 2018 when these seniors were in the seventh grade. Much of those losses were in District 25-5A.
“That first win to break that losing streak was the hardest of all,” head coach Kait Goertz said. “It takes one win to break a streak. They earned it. It wasn’t waiting for the other team to make errors. They went out and earned those points.”
That was especially true in the second set. When Marble Falls (1-4) earned its 14th point, Lampasas called a timeout. Assistant coach Tyler Porter told the players that out of the 14 points they had, 11 came from their own kills.
During the time between the second and third sets, Goertz said she told her players the Lady Badgers tend to play their best in the third set.
“They fight back harder than in the other sets,” she recalled saying. “Lampasas is a team with fight in them. That’s not a team I wanted to take to five sets. Lampasas fights back and we drop that third set? I didn’t want to give them that confidence.”
And just as she predicted, the Lady Badgers took a lead and forced the Lady Mustangs to work hard to close the gap. The difference is that in this match, they came all the way back and won.
Part of the preparation for Lampasas involved a change in the schedule. After losing to Lago Vista Oct. 3, Goertz said she called a team meeting the next day instead of a film session. She noted that the statistical numbers during the losses to Lago Vista and to Burnet Sept. 29 weren’t that different.
“Burnet was our most complete game all season,” Goertz said. “We were sitting down and talking as a team about what is the difference. It’s not a talent issue; it’s something deeper. So let’s get down into what’s going to help us as a team. We came up with some solutions going into practice (Oct. 5) and going into Friday’s game. It made a difference.”
The win came at the right time – the last match of the first round of district play. Marble Falls travels to Jarrell (3-2, third place) for a 6 p.m. match Tuesday, Oct. 10, before traveling to Georgetown Gateway (5-0, first place) Friday, Oct. 13.
“It’s no longer reading a scouting report,” Goertz said. “We know what they’ve done against us, we know how they defend us, how they scored on us. We have nothing left to lose. We’re fifth in district; it’s a very good spot, a very dangerous spot. There’s upside. We have nothing to lose. We have to fight to get our names in the playoff conversation.”
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