The Wimberley High School Lady Texans volleyball team fell behind 2-0, (25-20, 25-17) to Canyon Randall High School on Friday, Nov. 22, in Garland in the UIL 4A Division 2 State Final and won the next three sets (25-14, 25-23, 15-9) to win the State championship.
“I take absolutely zero credit for that,” said head coach Misty Fletcher-Remmers. “As much as I’d like to tell you I gave them some inspiring speech, I did not. These girls made the decision that’s not how this is going to go, it’s not how our story was ending. By the time I got to the huddle and talked to them, it’s like 'Coach we got this, don’t worry; we got it; we’re winning,' and I can’t tell you how many times Laney [Hennessee] said that.”
Wimberley led the first set until Canyon tied it 14-14. It was tied again 17-17 when Canyon made an 8-to-4-point run winning the set on a service error. The Lady Texans chipped away at an early Canyon lead and the second set was tied twice, but the Lady Texans never had a lead and lost it 25-17. The third set was the complete opposite.
Canyon served and Hennessee slammed a ball off the floor boards for a 1-0 lead on a kill with an assist from Carson Peoples. Canyon tied it 7-7, but never had a lead and trailed 21-11 at one point. Wimberley won the set 25-14. “That third set everyone on the team had the mind set [that] we are not losing, but we never said it. In the huddle we’d say, 'We are winning this game,'” Hennessee said after the game. “It’s we are winning and it lit a fire under all of us.”
Canyon couldn’t put the Lady Texans away and in the fourth set the score was tied six times, when a kill by Lilli Sandavol tied it again 23-23. A serve by Peoples was mishandled by Canyon for an ace and set point. Peoples again served and got an assist when Sandavol got another kill to win the set 25-23 and tie the match 2-2, forcing a fifth and final set.
“Nobody wanted it more than all fourteen of us, every single girl on our team wanted it way too bad to lose,” said senior Rhagen Masur.
The fifth set started like the third set did. Canyon served and Wimberley took a 1-0 lead when Hennessee got the kill off an assist from Cameron Thames. The Lady Texans never fell behind in the set and led by as many as five points. Canyon got within two points, 8-6, when the Wimberley coach called a timeout. Wimberley had a 7-to-3-point run and when leading 12-9 finished it 15-9 with three straight points, a pair of kills by Skylar Mears with an assist by Peoples and a service ace by Addie Laney. “We all had the drive and desire to win,” said Hennessee, who was awarded the game’s Most Valuable Player.
“As a coach that’s what you dream of: a team and a group who have worked and done it all and said we got this and that’s something I’ll never forget,” Fletcher-Remmers said in the post-game interview. “I don’t think as a player, a head coach or an assistant coach I have ever been a part of a reverse sweep,” the coach added, “So, what a time for the first one.” She also applauded the support they have received from everyone, “You can look up in the stands and see it and feel it. Beyond a great volleyball program, it’s a phenomenal community.”
Wimberley stats include the following: Attacking Percentage: .207; Kills: Hennessee led with 18, Addison Parks had 10, Sandavol had nine, Mariah McCoy had four, Mears had three, Thames and Skylar Herring each had two and Laney and Peoples had one each; Assists: Peoples had 18, Herring had 17, Masur had six, Hennessee had two and Sandavol, Mears and Thames had one each; Aces: Hennessee had three, Masur had three and Herring, Laney and Ashton Shipman had one each; Digs: Hennessee had 15, Masur had 14, Laney had 13, Herring and Peoples had 11, Sandavol and Thames had five and McCoy and Shipman had two; Solo Blocks: McCoy had one; Block Assists: McCoy, Mears and Thames had three, Hennessee, Parks and Sandavol had one each; and Service Receptions: 74 with 12 errors. Named to All-Tournament Teams were Hennessee, Masur and Parks.
Wimberley has had 12 shutouts since Oct. 1 and only two games that went to four sets before meeting Canyon in the State final.
PHOTO BY WAYLAND D. CLARK Wimberley’s Addison Parks, a junior, drives the ball past Canyon Randall’s defense for one of her 10 kills in the game.
