Emily Clark sets teammate Kelsea Sadler as the Hays volleyball team prepares to host the Rebel Bash. The 24-team tournament will take place Thursday and Saturday at the Bales and Red gyms on the HHS campus. (Photo by Jason Gordon)
by JASON GORDON
Twenty-four volleyball teams will invade Hays High School Thursday morning for the Rebel Bash tournament.
Hays, San Antonio-Incarnate Word, Wimberley, Poth, Round Rock-McNeil and Pflugerville-Hendrickson are a few of the teams top-seeded in their pools.
The tournament kicks off at both Bales and the Red gyms on the Hays High campus Thursday at 8 a.m.
Other local teams playing include Austin-Akins, Austin-Reagan, Austin-McCallum and Austin-LBJ.
Teams will be traveling from as far away as El Paso-Riverside and Corpus Christi-Calallen.
“We’re excited about the field we have,” said Hays head coach Erica Walther. “There are a good mix of teams from the area and ones coming in from out of town. There should be some strong matches that will be good for us and everyone else since district is right around the corner.”
Each team is guaranteed to play six matches. After pool play wraps up on Thursday, teams will return to conclude the tournament on Saturday and be placed in either the Gold, Flight 1, Flight 2, Flight 3, or Flight 4 pool based on how they finish in Thursday’s action.
The Gold Pool championship match, which will determine the top team at the tournament, will take place at Bales Gym at noon on Saturday.
“I think teams enjoy coming here not only because of the competition but because we guarantee they are going to play six matches,” Walther said. “Whoever makes it to the Gold Pool title game will be playing some pretty good volleyball because they are going to have to get through a lot of teams to get there.”
One team on a solid run of late is host Lady Rebels, who have reeled off four wins in a row and have won eight of their last nine matches dating back to the Fraulein Volleyfest in New Braunfels. That includes a win over Class 3A state juggernaut Wimberley last Tuesday night.
“We started the season with so many injuries and now that we’re getting healthy again we’re playing very well,” Walther said. “Our lineup is looking like what I pictured at the beginning of the season and the girls are doing a very good job playing team volleyball. It’s exactly what you want to see heading into district.”
Hays will first open Rebel Bash play in a Thursday pool with Regents and the Antonian junior varsity. The Lady Rebs will have their opening match against Antonian at Bales Gym at 8 a.m.
“I think we’re playing well enough right now to win our tournament, and that should always be our goal,” Walther said. “We want to come out of the tournament healthy, and with the same kind of confidence we’ve built up over the last couple of weeks.”
After hosting Austin High in its final non-district tune-up on Thursday, the Lady Rebs open the District 27-4A season Friday at Bales Gym against defending champion Smithson Valley. The varsity match against the Lady Rangers is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.
