Thursday, April 25, 2024
KILLING IT: Christen Nichols smashes one of her six kills against the Lady Coyotes.
Granbury improved its District 5-5A volleyball record to 2-3 with a 3-0 sweep of Wichita Falls High School on Tuesday at the James Wann Sports Center.
The win also edged the Lady Pirates to one game under the .500 for the season, with Granbury now standing at 17-18 on the year.
Despite chalking up a 25-18, 25-21, 25-13 district victory, there was some disappointment on coach Desiree Shahan's face because Granbury didn't bring its usual high-energy play to the court.
"We did not play to our potential tonight. It has been kind of an 'off day' all day. Our practice was kind of off," Shahan said. "I am proud of the way that they kept it together and obviously winning in three was important, but I really wanted more out of them."
Midway through the first game, Granbury was up 12-10, and the Lady Coyotes seemed determined to hang around before the Lady Pirates finally ground out the win.
"I think it was a lack of energy, communication it was all around the board tonight. That's something we have been working on all week. It was kind of a weird vibe," Shahan said. "There are going to be times when it is like that. The girls have complained there weren't very many fans in the stands, but that energy should be coming from us, and that's what gets the fans excited.
So do third game wins when you club the ball over the net like Ellie Alexander, Rachael Poirier, Kassidy Kirkpatrick and Christen Nichols did. Alexander and Poirier came up with 10 kills each, while Kirkpatrick had seven, and Nichols came up with six.
"The last couple of games, our outside hitters have really stepped up their games, and I feel like they are doing a great job. Hitting from the outside is something we need to keep doing, but we still need to run some different things," Shanan said.
What kind of different things?
"We need to push more points at the service line. That changed the whole game for us tonight in the third game as compared to the first two." Shanan said. "That was something that we did very well against Rider, Aledo and Brewer the other night. We need to continue doing that, and we need to run our offense.
Until the Lady Pirates woke up in their third game against the Lady Coyotes, that was a missing element for Granbury as the Lady Pirates were taking what Wichita Falls was giving them.
KIRKPATRICK'S RECORD CHASE
With teams avoiding senior Ellie Alexander, Kirkpatrick has stepped up and become the Lady Pirates' leading blocker with 92 stops. It appeared she would be breaking the school record for the statistic Tuesday, but it turns out the GISD website's volleyball records page is incorrect.
Kirkpatrick added four blocks against the Lady Coyotes to give herself 96 blocks on the season, ranking 5th in GISD's recorded history. Mandy Withey holds the all-time mark with 133 blocks set in 2017, and she also has the second spot with 109 in 2018. Amber Strange's 101 (2016) ranks third, and Macie Blohowiak is fourth with 98 (2019).
SOME MORE STATS
Alexander served up a game-high five aces and evenly split 30 digs with libero Missy Varni, and Sara Welch added 12 more to the Lady Pirates' totals. Welch's ball-handling skills were top-notch as the junior posted 33 assists.
SUBVARSITY SCORES
Granbury's junior varsity also won in a sweep with a 25-19, 26-16 win, and the freshmen Purple were 25-13, 25-22 winners, too.
THE BREWER WIN
Granbury pounded its way into the district win column with a 3-2 road win at Brewer on Oct. 1 as the Lady Pirates outlasted the Lady Bears 25-19, 19-25, 27-25, 26-28, 15-10.
THE PLAYOFF OUTLOOK
Granbury (2-3) is currently third in league play and has lost matches against Rider (4-0) and Aledo (3-1). The Lady Pirates' Oct. 1 win at Brewer dropped the Lady Bears into 4th place with Azle. Granbury faces Azle at home Friday night in a critical match where a win will give the Lady Pirates some breathing room and keep them in the running for the top three spots rather than fourth.
Russell@hcnews.com | 817-573-7066 ext. 231
