Marble Falls volleyball loses to Salado
The Marble Falls High School volleyball team lost to Salado 11-25, 15-25, 21-25 Sept. 24 in District 24-4A play.
Head coach Christopher Pace believes the Lady Mustangs who competed in the third set is who the team really is.
The Lady Mustangs (16-13, 0-3) didn’t let the deficit get more than a couple of points and had leads over the Lady Eagles (27-6, 4-0), who had to call a timeout to regroup.
“I am genuinely proud of the team for playing the way they did,” he said. “When we lost that first set, we could have folded — we didn’t. We got better. And then in that second set after going down 0-2, sometimes teams fold. And our girls are mentally tough enough to hang in there and know that they could compete and then took the lead late in the third set. When the players care, good things happen. I’m just extremely proud of them. They work really, really hard to do the right things.”
Pace, the assistant coaches and the Lady Mustangs were fired up as they huddled together in an effort to keep the momentum going.
“We’re also starting to believe that we can beat these teams, and we can play with these guys, and we just showed it,” he said. “If we can play that consistently, good things will come if we can keep that level of intensity.”
He credited senior setter Mia Trejo for doing what needed to be done in order to give her team a chance at a win.
“Mia came up huge with those big blocks to kind of deter them from swinging as hard as they could,” he said. “When we’re playing good defense at the net — when we get touches — that is volleyball 101. You get touches at the net and you make life so much easier.”
Marble Falls used the first 2 sets to get warmed up, he said.
“We had a few errors to start and then we got really good by the end,” the coach said. “When you get a finish like that, you can carry it over. If you finish like that, you can carry it over into the next match, into the next day. You can constantly just keep carrying it over, which is really good.”
That carryover will be vital in the next three matches beginning with the road trip to Lampasas for a 5 p.m. contest Friday, Sept. 27 followed by a home match against Taylor at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1. The first round of district play ends with a road match at Jarrell Friday, Oct. 4.
Jarrell (2-1) has beaten Lampasas (0-4) and Taylor (1-1) and hosts Burnet (2-1) Friday, Sept. 27. Teams that qualify for the playoffs will have beaten Lampasas and Taylor. The winner of the Burnet-Jarrell match has a shot of finishing the first round no worse than third in the district standings.
Pace said skill is a big part of any match. And the self-belief and belief in teammates and the scheme is invaluable as the Lady Mustangs focus on finishing the first round the way they want.
“Skill does matter, but really, if you’re mentally tough enough to go in and compete with everybody, (you can) beat anybody,” he said. “Show your willingness to go the extra mile, to find the extra gear. I think that’s the most important part. I think we’re really starting to find our groove.”
Pace believes the Lady Mustangs are in a great spot, and he looks forward to seeing how they respond in the next several days.
“The thing that I’m most pleased about is the leadership,” he said. “In between every single set, I walked away. When a minute 30 was left, and I let them talk to each other. I just stepped away, went talked to my coaches. I think it makes the world a difference. We also started a really, really good week of practice. Last (Friday, Sept. 20) was our bye. So we’ve had four really good practices in a row, and it shows.”
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