The Dripping Springs Tigers remained unbeaten in district play after cruising past the Boerne Champion Chargers 25-21, 25-22, 25-11 Friday at Tiger Gym.
As a team, Dripping Springs recorded 44 kills against Champion, which is competing with Kerrville Tivy and Seguin for the final playoff spots in 26-5A.
“You know the objective [for Champion] is to try and win a match, steal it from us, and it kind of secures second (place),” Dripping Springs head coach Michael Kane said. “This is a team that we could absolutely see in the regional quarterfinals, so we took them seriously.”
The first two sets of the match were hard fought between both teams, with the Tigers ultimately pushing through with narrow outcomes.
“They played us really tough in the first two sets, felt like we let up a little bit on a couple of plays,” said Kane. “We gave up some runs of four in the first set, and a run of five in the second, which is unlike our characteristic of us lately, which enabled them to stay in the match.”
Dripping Springs found its groove in the third set with a convincing 25-11 win. Senior Graceyn Tippens led the Tigers with 16 on the night.
Senior Ava Pritchard, who is a Clemson commitment, also contributed six kills and two blocks in the match.
“We know what we are going to get from Graceyn,” Kane said. “Graceyn is obviously a D-1 commit and probably the most valuable player in the district in my opinion.”
Dripping Springs juniors Madison Certain and Bailey Hill were also important players in the Tigers game plan against the Chargers. Hill had seven Kills, while Certain added six kills in the match. Tigers sophomore Avery Kalsu led the team in assists with 24, while also contributing 6 kills of her own.
“I thought we did a really good job of distributing the ball, and we got some great swings from Bailey Hill on the right side and Avery Kalsu on the right side,” Kane said. “Maddy Certain had some really good swings from the outside.”
Boerne Champion senior Georgia Inman was the bright spot for the Chargers with nine kills, four digs and a pair of aces in the match.
With one game remaining before playoffs, Kane wants the Tigers to remain focused and consistent like they have been in the second half of district play.
“I think for us mentality wise is staying the course and making sure that we are consistent from start to finish and not giving up as I mentioned before,” Kane said. “We gave up a little bit of two big of runs late in the first and second set, we eliminated that in the third. But the truth of the matter is we have stayed away from that in probably the last eight or nine matches and that’s something we’ve got to make sure if we are going to make a deep run in the playoffs we got to not allow teams to score runs and points on us.”
