BY MOSES LEOS III
All eyes were on Lehman high School Monday night, as the Lady Lobos volleyball team hosted the first Hays CISD varsity sporting event of 2013.
Lehman didn’t disappoint, as the Lady Lobos cruised past Del Valle in straight sets 25-21, 25-11, 25-17.
The Lady Lobos sprinted out of the gates, eventually holding a 21-12 lead. However, Del Valle concocted a 7-3 run to close the gap to 24-19.
Head coach Megan Cooper took a time out to settle her team down.
“I think we got complacent at the end [of the first set],” Cooper said. “The girls thought they had a bigger lead.”
Despite ball control issues, the team won the set by four points. In the second set, the Lady Lobos took an 11-4 lead off of Del Valle miscues. The team closed the set by outscoring the Lady Cardinals 14-7.
Highlighting the night was Haleigh Rohde, who had a team high of eight kills. She felt Del Valle could not gauge the speed of the offense, allowing for easy points.
“The other team had a strong middle block, but their block was slow,” Rohde said. “It was easy to read around and go hit…anything off the middle. If it was off the middle, it was a wide open kill.”
Cheyenne Morgan, who earned five kills on the night, also was able to take advantage on offense.
“The key was just to try to fi nd an opening, and find where their block was,” Morgan said. “If they were blocking the line, I would go across.”
Momentum continued into the third and final set. The team went on a tear, scoring the first ten points.
Cooper attributed success to the service skills of Heidi Muñoz.
“Heidi was just messing around, [serving] short, then deep,” she said. [Muñoz] was making [Del Valle] move and keeping them out of system.”
Muñoz, who earned eight assists, was pleased with the team’s service skills.
“Our serves were amazing,” she said. “We missed a few, but what keeps us going is our serving.”
Lehman’s big lead allowed Cooper to play every player, which she said was “huge.”
The mixing and matching of personnel, however, led to some errors. It allowed Del Valle to keep pace with Lehman in set three.
Yet, the Lady Lobos finished strong, staying one step ahead of Del Valle. Rohde highlighted the third set with a powerful kill to increase the lead to 16-11. Lehman out-dueled the Lady Cards down the stretch to claim the first win of the year.
A strong support system helped fuel the Lobos.
“We are strong as a team. We are able to bring each other up,” Morgan said. “We support each other, even when we make mistakes.”
As the bulk of the season lies ahead, Cooper understands how big the first win truly is.
“We will take a win wherever we get one,” she said. “Our schedule will get harder until we get to district. So it feels good to have your fi rst game as a win under your belt.”
Rohde sees great things ahead for the Lady Lobos.
“[The win] feels great,” she said. “It’s a peek of what we can do this season. We think we can do our best.”
Aleeya Eskridge led the team with five aces. Lehman’s next few matches will be in the AISD Tournament from Aug. 15-17. They host Crockett at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 20.
