Marble Falls volleyball regroups after loss to Jarrell

CAPTION: Marble Falls sophomore Madison Cuplin hits a ball off the Jarrell block for a point. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Marble Falls High School volleyball team lost to Jarrell 14-25, 18-25, 16-25 Oct. 29.

That means the two split the regular season series and are tied for fourth in the District 24-4A standings. They will participate in a play-in contest to decide which squad enters the Class 4A playoffs. The match is at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1, at Liberty Hill Legacy Ranch High School, 450 CR 258 in Liberty Hill.

“We got two chances at it, so we had the chance (Oct. 29) that didn’t happen,” Marble Falls head coach Christopher Pace said. “We told the girls, you still have another shot. Season’s not over. This wasn’t the end of it and you can’t let it be the end of your season.”

The Lady Cougars won sets two and three the same way — with aces.

Losing the third set was especially difficult. Needing to win it to force a fourth game, the Lady Mustangs raced to a 5-0 lead that forced Jarrell into a timeout.

The Lady Cougars responded by knotting the set at 5-5. But Marble Falls made sure to keep a lead until it had a 13-10 advantage.

Jarrell then won 15 of the next 18 points to take the match and force the play-in.

Knowing they were playing for their season to continue, the Lady Cougars performed as if they had nothing to lose. They were quicker to the ball, located and hit to holes in the Marble Falls defense, and didn’t let their mistakes linger.

Pace wanted to see a stinger defense from his players and noted it was the same scheme the team has been using.

“The same defense that we’ve played all year in terms of responsibilities,” he said. “I just don’t understand why we didn’t play the same defense that we have all year.”

The match was conducted in front of a large crowd in Max Copeland Gym. The home side was especially into it and cheered wildly when Marble Falls scored a point. Pace noted that Jarrell “came out ready to go right away” and that when things didn’t go the Lady Mustangs’ way, it was tougher.

“The mindset changed a little bit, body language changed a little bit and just a slight adjustment,” he said. “Whether it be positive or negative, any small adjustment is going to make a difference. For me, as a coach, I take all the losses on me.  I didn’t prepare them well enough. That’s really not a loss on the girls at all. This team is a playoff team. Whether people believe it or not, this is a playoff team. We are a playoff caliber team. We do a lot of things really well. Today, we just didn’t play our best and at the end of the day, that’s what it is. We didn’t play our best, and I think Jarrell, in my opinion, just played one of their best games.” 

Pace recognized that this is the first Lady Mustang squad in 15 years that has a chance to advance to the playoffs with a victory. Most of them have never played in a meaningful contest on the last day of the regular season.

“The good thing is we played in one now, we played a game with high stakes, but we have to be ready to do the things that we didn’t do,” he said. “(Jarrell) didn’t do anything that was different than what we’ve seen, maybe different from what we’ve seen from them, but not different than what we’ve seen from other teams. And we’re gonna be ready to go. We’re gonna work on the areas that we struggled tonight, really put some emphasis on those as well as emphasizing still doing our best at what we do best, which is we hit the ball very well on the year.”

CAPTION: Marble Falls freshman hitter Brighton Bernard dinks the ball over the Jarrell blocker. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro