Wimberley — Hays head volleyball coach Michael Kane doesn’t like excuses.

Never mind his Lady Rebels were taking on one of the best Class 3A programs in the state — the Wimberley Lady Texans. And never mind the Lady Rebels were without the services of two key seniors (Phoebe Corder and Brooke Basey) who were injured in last weekend’s New Braunfels Fraulein Fest.

Kane wasn’t buying it. Instead, after watching his Lady Rebels suffer a quick, three-set loss (25-11, 25-16, 25-21) loss to the Lady Texans, Kane said his squad needs to dig from within and overcome the recent personnel losses.

“I won’t allow myself or these kids to use that as an excuse for the performance they had. We are getting out-hustled, outworked and we need to play with more heart. This team is going to have to find its soul,” Kane said. “I’m not going to deny that Phoebe and Brooke were instrumental parts of the team. But someone must step up. If someone goes down on a team, and if you’re truly a team, then the other kids on the team need to step up and make up the difference.

“Right now, that's not going on. We’re worrying more about what we don’t have instead of what we need to do and working with that.”

The Lady Texans, on the other hand, were at full strength, and thanks to the strong arms of Lacy Lea, Katie Milam and others the Lady Texans continuously pounded the Lady Rebels with powerful kills, while doing an outstanding job teaming up at the net for blocks.

Combined with a handful of Hays errors, the Lady Texans were able to pull away early in all three games.

“We felt bad (about Hays’ injuries) but we still had to take care of business and the girls did good job,” WHS head coach Lee Grisham said. “Hays is a team that is good enough to give us run any day, and it’s too bad they weren’t at full strength.”

Hays finally found some momentum after Wimberley had built a 23-14 lead. A controversial call at the net went against the Lady Texans, forcing Grisham to delay the game momentarily to voice his opinion. That call pulled the Lady Rebels to within eight points of the lead.

The Lady Rebels were able to trim the lead to 23-21 thanks to a jump-serve ace from Megan Shepard, a pair of blocks from Becky Swann and three WHS errors.

Grisham called a time-out and reinserted his starting outside hitters (Lea and Milam) and that would be as close as the Lady Rebels would get.

Hays was called for a lift on Tasha Soliz’ set attempt, setting up game and match point for the Lady Texans.

Lea took the honors, serving up an ace to close out the win.

“We let a bad call from the official get to us, and we usually don't do that,” Grisham said of Hays’ surge. “But we were able to get our composure back and close it out like we should.”

Milam led the Lady Texans with 10 kills while Lea knocked down eight kills. Setters Kaili Cusack and Maddie Milner guided the Lady Texan offense with 13 and 10 assists each, respectively, while Milam was the top defensive player with 10 digs. Autumn Caruthers also displayed defensive flair with seven digs.

Hays had little offensive output with junior hitter Molly Deering leading the way with five kills, while Shepard scored four and Swann had four.

The Lady Texans, currently Class 3A’s second-ranked team, improved their record to 11-4 overall, while Hays fell to 5-12.

As for Corder and Basey, the two collided in a pool game of last weekend's tournament. Corder suffered a concussion an will likely be back in the rotation when District 26-4 play starts, while Basey could be out four to five weeks with a broken right wrist.

“If these kids become competitive I really believe the talent that is on the team right now can be very competitive and tonight I don’t think we were very competitive,” Kane said . “It is something to take with us, but we are going to have to step up a lot more than we are night now.”

Hays is back in action Saturday afternoon with a tri-match against Lake Travis and Georgetown at Lake Travis. The Lady Texans hit the court again Friday night in Fredericksburg, playing a tri-match against the Lady Billies and Flour Bluff.