RATTLERS DEFANGED

The Lady Rattlers got their ‘sandwich’ game inside the Snake Pit Tuesday.

Coming off eight games in a three-day span, during their trip to the KISD/CFISD Varsity Tournament, from Aug. 10-12, San Marcos traveled home to play a non-district match before they head to the Bastrop ISD tournament set for Thursday to Saturday.

The Purple and White matched up with Austin Anderson, falling to the Lady Trojans (25-13, 2513, 25-17) in three sets.

“[Anderson] has two outside hitters that have a high level of IQ in the game, [they] have played at elite levels and can do some of those things [where] you can just throw up a ball and they’re going to be able to get a good hand on it and swing down,” head coach Megan Ollett said. “They also have a pretty talented little setter who can run their system. They have a good quick offense. It’s really just [about] being able to keep up with some of those pieces.

“Both of their outsides were a touch over our block, so if our block was off by any set of the timing, we were going to struggle to get some touches on it, to slow it down for some defense.”

San Marcos was the victim of the ball bouncing the Lady Trojans’ way at times and Anderson’s (81) outside hitters making plays during the match, but the Lady Rattlers’ own mental mishaps on the floor are what allowed them to fall behind on the scoreboard.

“[We needed] to not get so emotional about some of the things [that happened in the match] and to fight back through some of this stuff,” Ollett said. “Anderson is a very talented team. They have a lot of high-IQ volleyball players. Instead of rising to the challenge, we kind of cowered and I would have liked to see them try to fight, try to get better with each play.”

Being a team with just one senior, the Purple and White will have an abundance of teaching moments throughout the 2023 season. The flipside of those moments is how much San Marcos has the chance to grow within the season, and the lessons they’ll learn on and off the court, because of them.

“To me, this is the essence of what high school volleyball does. Because in club, you go and that’s where [players] get all of their recruiting and all that stuff. But here you’re learning to deal with the adversity of people being all over the place,” Ollett said. “You have people that have elite knowledge that struggle, that are athletic and all those pieces. You’re really learning to work together to capitalize on that and not go back into your own individual, mental stuff.

“Like that’s what happens when you get into the workforce. You have to work with everybody as a cohesive unit, and bring up the people who may be falling behind.”

San Marcos (4-7) will return to the court, looking to bounce back at the Bastrop ISD tournament starting Thursday. Ollett kept it simple when it came to the goals for the Lady Rattlers at this weekend’s tournament in Bastrop: “We’re going to have to work on getting better with each game.”

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