Lady Rattlers celebrate Gordon’s 1,000th assist in win

The Lady Rattlers continue to reach milestones as the season progresses. 

On Aug. 17, senior outside hitter Maggie Walsh recorded her 1,000th career kill against Austin McCullum. However, she’s not the only player that reached an accomplishment that week. Just a few days later, junior setter Ruby Gordon joined the club when she registered her 1,000th career assist during the Bastrop Tournament. She thought back to Walsh’s celebratory moment and remembered how remarkable it was for her teammate to gain this achievement. Gordon gave credit to her team for helping her attain the goal. 

“My best friend (Walsh) actually just got her 1,000th kill and seeing her, like, it was such a cool moment for her,” Gordon said. “If you look at it in the grand scheme of things, not a lot of hitters in their high school careers do that, and so for it to happen to me … I just looked at it as more of a team component. I mean, I can’t get a set without a pass, I can’t get an assist without a kill … I’ll thank my team for that and less of ‘I did it myself.’”

Head coach Jared Te’o noted how much Gordon has improved since he joined the program last summer. He said she tuned in and worked hard to get to where she is now. The missing piece to the puzzle was Gordon, and Te’o is happy to see her development over the past year.

“I’m so proud of her,” Te’o said. “It’s crazy. I remember last year I came in the summer and for one, when I saw Maggie, I was like, ‘Yikes, this is not going to be enough to win.’ Maggie turned into who she did, so I’m proud of her. The other piece was Ruby. I was like, ‘We have no setter.’ Ruby really bought in and she worked really hard and she’s super coachable … I didn’t know Ruby would get 1,000 assists, so I’m immensely proud of her.”

Gordon added on 44 more assists on Tuesday night when San Marcos defeated the Leander Lady Lions, 3-1 (25-14, 25-27, 25-18, 25-13), inside the Snake Pit. The win comes after a loss to Hendrickson in the gold bracket during the Bastrop Tournament. 

The Lady Rattlers (18-3) started the match on a strong note and the offense came out firing. The hosts registered kill after kill and went on a 7-0 run before Leander took a timeout as San Marcos led 22-11. The run was sparked by Walsh and senior middle blocker Emery Jones. Walsh ended the set with five kills and Jones ended with four. San Marcos dominated and took the frame, 25-14.

Leander (6-13) started fighting back during the second set. The Lady Lions forced the Lady Rattlers to take an early timeout as they pulled ahead to a 7-4 lead. Both teams were full of energy and they went back and forth for the entire set. Ultimately, Leander won in extra points, 27-25. Te’o said the visitors were putting a lot of pressure on freshman outside hitter Brinkley Reeves.

“They served really tough,” Te’o said. “We kind of got a little complacent. They were putting a lot of balls on our freshman — who’s phenomenal and she’s going to be great — but in those situations, you get a little nervous. We had to make some adjustments, but it was really their service pressure.”

The third set was also a battle. There were several lead changes until the very end when the Lady Rattlers started to pull away. Leander took their first timeout of the set when San Marcos took the lead, 19-18. The hosts went on another dominating run to close out the third, 25-18. Both Walsh and senior outside hitter Joselyn Roberson recorded four kills in the set.

The Lady Rattlers wanted to put this match away as the fourth frame began. They came out in great command, just as they did in the first set. The Lady Lions took an early timeout as the hosts led, 9-5. Four of those points came from Roberson. San Marcos closed out the set, 25-13, to win the match, 3-1.

There were many dominating performances by the Lady Rattlers. Roberson finished the night with an impressive 17 kills and four aces. Senior middle blocker Emery Jones also reached a milestone and had a career-high in points scored with 16 kills and four blocks. Walsh recorded another double-double with 12 kills and 11 digs.

San Marcos hopes to bring the heat at home this weekend in the Ragin’ Rattler Tournament, facing Houston Nimitz, Manor and Lockhart in pool play on Friday. Te’o looks to avenge some losses handed to the team previously.

“There’s some good teams that we’ve lost to that are playing, so hopefully we can do well enough to get a chance to play them again. It’s exciting, you know, people come to us. It’s our home gym, I like the vibe we have here … hopefully we can finish working on things we need to and make some improvements.”