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Photo by Gerald Castillo

San Marcos falls to Westlake, heads to play-in match

San Marcos Volleyball
Wednesday, October 27, 2021

The fifth set has been the most difficult for the Lady Rattlers this season. In every match that has gone to five frames, they haven’t been able to pull out a win. 

Head coach Jared Te’o explained that it isn’t about his team’s physicality, but it’s about the mental mistakes they’ve been suffering from throughout the season. San Marcos has had a hard time sustaining focus through five sets.

“Volleyball is crazy because there’s no time limit,” Te’o said. “You can’t just run the clock down and hope to win. You’ve got to go out there and earn your points and we tried to sustain it for five sets and we have yet to do it this season. I think it’s not some physical effort, it’s just mental fatigue. You know, they’re high school girls, just getting distracted and not staying focused. There’s another team on the other side of the net that’s wanting to beat you, so we’ve got to sustain the same energy throughout the match.”

The story was the same on Tuesday night when the Lady Rattlers were defeated by the Austin Westlake Lady Chaparrals, 3-2 (25-22, 16-25, 17-25, 25-19, 6-15), inside the Snake Pit. What’s good for the purple and white is that they’re not having to go to five sets with teams they should be beating, but they’re imposing a challenge on the top teams in the district. They need to overcome this mental block to make the playoffs.

The Lady Rattlers (31-12, 7-7 district) started the match off with high energy, capitalizing off Westlake’s errors. The visitors were having trouble in the serving game, while San Marcos was racking up the points and making multiple kills. They led by as much as seven in the middle of the set, but the Lady Chaparrals started to rally for a comeback. It came down to the wire, but the hosts took the first set after a kill from junior middle blocker Liana Guerra, 25-22. 

The second frame is where things started to go south for San Marcos. Westlake (25-29, 10-4 district) registered kill after kill and went on multiple 4-0 runs. The hosts couldn’t stop the visitors' hot offense.

The third set started off on a better note with three straight kills from senior outside hitter and Texas State commit, Maggie Walsh, and a block from the San Marcos defense to take an early 4-0 lead. Although, that didn’t stop the Lady Chaparrals from going on a 5-0 run immediately after. It was close throughout most of the frame, but Westlake ended up pulling away and took the set 25-17.

Te’o lit a fire under his team before the beginning of the fourth. They didn’t want the game to end just yet and that was evident on the court. The Lady Rattlers led by as much as nine during the set.

“I had a really aggressive timeout,” Te’o said. “I just really got on their butts about certain things and yelled at certain people very aggressively about things they’re not doing. San Marcos last year was known for being this gritty, underdog team that just left everything on the floor and were super aggressive … we don’t have that same personality and we’re trying to get that back.”

Despite a tough fifth set, San Marcos had some fighters on the court. Walsh added another double-double to her resume with 19 kills and 26 digs, while adding two blocks. Senior outside hitter Joselyn Roberson registered four kills, three blocks and 16 digs, and junior setter Ruby Gordon added three kills of her own along with seven digs, two blocks and 30 assists.

The Lady Rattlers are set to face district rival Buda Hays in a tiebreaker match taking place Friday at 6 p.m. at Buda Johnson. The winner will punch their ticket to the playoffs.

San Marcos is 2-1 against the Lady Hawks this season but were defeated in another tough five-set match in their last meeting. In order to accomplish their goal of making the playoffs, the purple and white will have to focus and overcome their mental mistakes they’ve been plagued with this season, and Te’o says they plan on doing so.

“I don’t know how else to motivate a team other than, ‘This is in or out,’ the head coach said. “So we’ll be focusing on what Hays does well and just be mentally focused and rested for Friday.”

San Marcos Record

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