by Moses Leos III
Last Thursday through Saturday, Lehman (8-3) played in the Austin ISD volleyball tournament. The Lady Lobos went 7-2, winning seven straight going into Tuesday night’s game against Crockett.
Yet in a rematch of an Austin ISD tournament game, Crockett held on to shock the surging Lady Lobos 3-2 (25-17, 18-25, 23-25, 25-16, 8-15).
The game started well, as Lehman claimed the first set 25-17.
The Lady Lobos opened the second with a 5-1 lead. However, numerous miscues allowed Crockett to claw their way back. The Lady Cougars took advantage of Lehman mistakes, steadily building a lead and winning the set.
“You cannot spot a team 16 points with your own errors and expect to win,” head coach Megan Cooper said. “Crockett started picking it up on their side. We didn’t adapt fast enough, and we kept shooting ourselves in the foot. We made mistake after mistake.”
Problems persisted in the third set. The Lady Lobos struggled to find consistency on offense and defense. Not helping matters were numerous serving errors, as Leh-man finished the night with 13.
Senior Haley Rohde, who along with senior Aleeya Eskridge had 11 kills, felt the team pressed too much.
“As a team, as soon as we make a mistake, we get in our heads that we will continue to make mistakes,” Rohde said. “As the season goes on, that’s what we’re trying to fix – and we will fix it.”
Lehman did mount a rally from a 16-24 deficit in the third set. The Lady Lobos went on a 7-0 run before conceding the set point.
The momentum carried over into the fourth set. Rohde created havoc for the Crockett defense. Her skills on net kept Lehman ahead to force a final set.
“Momentum is a tricky thing,” Rohde said. “If you have the highest momentum, you are going to feel good and continue to play well.”
But once again, errors proved to be the downfall of the Lady Lobos.
Crockett took advantage, ending the Lady Lobos’ bid for an eighth straight win.
“We know we can play well. We know from games one and four we can win,” Cooper said. “The sets we lost, it felt like we were not there. We were not the team we know we can be.”
Rohde and the Lady Lobos aim to rebound in the next tournament at Pflugervillle Connally.
“I think we will use [the tournament] as a springboard,” Rohde said. “We need our confidence back. That tournament is going to help us a lot with that.”
Leading the team in assists was Eskridge with six.
The Lady Lobos will play in the Plugerville Connally tournament on Thursday through Saturday and will host San Marcos Aug. 27.
