From staff reports
San Marcos —
With a non-district game against Holy Trinity in Temple at 4:30 p.m. today, the Lady Bears of San Marcos Academy will have a final opportunity to perfect their skills before they open TAPPS District 6-3A play Aug. 30 at their home court.
Head Coach Jennifer Jannett said her team is still working on perfecting their basic skills and improving overall communication before they take on San Juan Diego of Austin at SMA's Chick-fil-A Court next week (JV at 6:30 p.m., varsity at 7:30 p.m.).
“We are on track, but we could certainly be playing better,” Jannett said. “We need to work more on our fundamentals, especially our passing, and we need better communication. But I believe we’ll be playing at a higher level and be where we need to be when district play starts.”
Jannett said she is expecting a lot this year from her three returning senior starters, Taylor Teis, Melanie Isaacs and Summer Stallings, all from San Marcos.
“I'm counting on these girls to be our team leaders,” Jannett said.
Other returning varsity players are Tiara Hansen, a San Marcos junior, and Beth Thielen, a sophomore from Maxwell.
Two other Lady Bears, Magdalena Wendling (a senior from Belize) and Carly Mitchell (a junior from Midland), were moved up from the junior varsity team this year to round out the starting “seven” on varsity.
“Since we play a libero, I consider all seven girls as my starters,” Jannett explained.
Also getting time on the court this year will be Kayla Chandler, Lindsey Preston and Aliah Ridge, all of San Marcos.
“The team’s goal this year is to make the playoffs, and I believe we have the talent to do it,” Jannett said. “We're playing in TAPPS 6-3A this year rather than in a 4A district like before, so we have a more even playing field and should be competitive against all of our district rivals.”
During the Lady Bears’ first week of play, the team suffered a five-set loss (25-22, 29-26, 26-28, 27-16, 15-13) to San Antonio-Sunnybrook, then fell to Summit Christian in Austin in three straight games (14-25, 22-25, 17-25).
This past weekend, SMA came out with one win in three outings at the Sunnybrook Tournament in San Antonio.
