Lady Rattlers swept by Cibolo Steele

The serving was consistent.

San Marcos gave up just three errors from the line and served at a high 93.8 percent clip.

The issue for the Lady Rattlers was that they weren’t able to get possession often enough, as they served just 48 times on Friday in a 3-0 road loss to Cibolo Steele, compared to the Lady Knights’ 73 attempts.

Steele was relentless in its attack. They picked up a kill on 42.4 percent of its spikes, resulting in 39 points. 

San Marcos didn’t have much of a counterpunch. They suffered 31 digging errors and could only muster a .078 hit percentage throughout the match. They dropped the first set, 25-12.

The Lady Rattlers did get better as the match wore on. Senior middle blocker Devin Branch led the team with nine kills on 19 attempts and fellow senior middle blocker Shyeann Lampkin chipped in on defense with four blocks.

It still wasn’t enough, though, as the team dropped the second set, 25-16, and the third, 25-19. It was only the second time all year San Marcos was swept 3-0, the other being the Lady Rattler’s season-opening defeat to Bastrop on Aug. 7.

The loss moves San Marcos down to 16-16 overall and 0-3 in district, tied with Smithson Valley for seventh place. The Lady Rattlers will need to turn things around soon if they plan to make the playoffs and have the opportunity to do so against Schertz Clemens (25-6, 3-0), who currently sits in first place.

 The Lady Buffaloes will host San Marcos on Tuesday at 7 p.m.