San Marcos — BY RICHARD C. WHITE

Sports Writer



In the most electric home game of the season, the Lady Rattlers (9-8) were beaten by the Canyon Lady Cougars (16-12) in three sets (25-18, 26-24, 25-19) Tuesday night in the Snake Pit.

“I’m kind of disappointed, no--I’m really disappointed,” said junior setter Jordan Carswell. “I think we could have done better, but we just fell apart.”

Carswell led the team in many categories, including aces, kills and digs. Carswell’s three aces were followed by Allie Bryant who had one and Carswell’s 10 kills were followed by Maggie Breed with nine, Delaney Hearne with four, Madelyn Swinney with three, and Ali Gonzales, Birdie Schneider and Bryant with one apiece.

Although San Marcos was swept, the scores for each of the sets were close. The 26-24 second set loss was particularly hard to accept.

“It’s hard to swallow a loss like that,” Breed said. “It’s hard to think of what else you could have done because we fought so hard, but everything is a learning experience.”

In addition to a tough Lady Cougars team that had played 11 more games than the Lady Rattlers coming into the Tuesday night match, San Marcos also had to endure a boisterous visitor’s side of the gym.

Led by the supportive shouts of their junior varsity team, the Canyon fans made the Snake Pit louder in the Lady Rattlers’ first home loss than it had been in San Marcos’ previous two home victories of the season.

 While the SMHS side of the gym cheered on its team with “Let’s go Rattlers,” the Canyon side of the gymnasium countered with chants of “We can’t hear you” and “Scoreboard," continuously pointing out the Lady Cougars' growing lead.

SMHS head coach Michelle Moreno took no offense to the various cheers, saying it was nothing more than gamesmanship, something she said inspired her team.

“They were intense, but I tell the girls it’s all us on the court,” Moreno said. “We have to ignore what the refs do, what opponents do and what they say and I personally think my girls feed off of that.”

“It was nice to have our crowd back us up and answer back. That’s what we want, that’s the Rattler pride.”

Although the Lady Rattlers lost, they did stage a mini rally in the second set, spurred on by the clamor of the crowd.

“I like a gym environment like that, it pumps us up,” Breed said. “I think we play better in a higher intensity environment.”

Breed and Carswell led the team with 19 digs each while Lizzie Brown had 17, Schneider had nine and Gonzales had five with Katy Meyer, Savanna Tate and Hearne each with two.

San Marcos also spread around its blocks as Swinney and Hearne each had two while Meyer and Carswell had one apiece.  For assists, Gonzales led with 13, while Carswell had eight.

While she was proud of the tenacity and grit all her players displayed, Moreno was particularly proud of the stellar defense Hearne provided throughout the night.

“We played with a lot of fight and heart,” Moreno said. “Delaney really stepped up, she was a wall at the front of the net.”

As the team prepares to host its own home tournament beginning Thursday, Moreno said there’s always something positive her players can take away from a loss, especially close ones like Tuesday night.

“They walked off upset and that’s good,” she said, “because it means they hate losing and they want to win and they’ll do what it takes to do just that.”



LHS holds off Aikins

KYLE — The Lehman Lady Lobos were able to able remain undefeated at home Tuesday evening, but it wasn’t easy as it took five games for the Lady Lobos to take care of Class 5A Austin-Akins at the LHS Gymnasium.

Lehman took a 2-1 lead by winning the third game, 25-23 and came close to taking care of the match in four games, but fell short, 26-24, allowing Akins to take the match to a fifth game. Lehman then took care of business, winning game four, 15-10.

Mariana Filipi led the Lady Lobos with 15 kills and was also strong on defense with 16 digs. Adrieana Martinez came through with nine digs, while Felina Ortiz had six digs.

Vikki Smith led the Lady Lobos behind the line with five aces, while Tori Espinoza, Lauren Ayala and Martinez had two aces each.

Smith also did a nice job directing the LHS offense with 32 assists.

Lehman is back in action this weekend when the Lady Lobos open play in the San Marcos CenturyLink Ragin’ Rattler Classic at San Marcos. LHS opens pool play with St. John, Weatherford and Bryan.

• Randy Stevens