San Marcos splits opening games at Ragin’ Rattler Tournament

The Lady Rattlers got back on the floor inside the Snake Pit for the first day of the Ragin’ Rattler Tournament Thursday.

San Marcos faced off with San Angelo Lake View and McKinney in their two matches on Aug. 25. The Purple and White started out strong, sweeping the Maidens in two sets, (25-9, 25-17).

The Lady Rattlers were fueled by junior outside hitter Brinkley Reeves, who led the way in the kill department for San Marcos throughout the contest.

“We started off the game really good. Lake View was obviously a team that I think we definitely had a lot more skill than, and I think it was a good team to start the day off with,” Reeves said. “We had an unfortunate injury [to Pactanac] in it. But before that–it was just that they weren’t really tall, so it was really good for our hitters to get the ball on the court, and you could easily play shots around the court. Nobody was really touching them.”

Sophomore middle blocker Melayna Perkins also had a solid performance, amassing multiple blocks throughout the first match, as well as contributing a handful of kills of her own. Junior setter Grace Pactanac has been a staple of the Lady Rattler offense as their starting setter and offensive facilitator, but went down with a tough leg injury at the end of the first set.

“I think everybody had a little mental reset. It took a lot of rebuilding, resetting in that second set,” Reeves said. “We started off really bad and then Harper, our freshman, went back and she served a couple points and got us going and then we finally finished the game. But yeah, that game [had] a good start, then had a little dip and then we picked it back up in the end. But overall , it was pretty good besides the loss of Grace.”

Freshman setter Harper McGee was called to step in after the injury in set two. McGee had to get her feet under her at first, but looked mature as a freshman on varsity, with her play continuing to adjust and improve throughout the second set. McGee was able to set up multiple assists to Reeves on the outside and also contributed in the kill department with two aces on her first two serves in the set.

“I know she has it in her to be a leader and a great player, but obviously like –as someone who was a freshman on varsity–it’s a lot. It’s very hard and you can tell she’s still getting into it,” Reeves said. “But I do think once she gets out of her shell, she will definitely excel. I think as much as it sucks with Grace getting hurt, it’s a good opportunity for her to step into that role and be pushed into it, instead of kind of just eased into it. So I think that’s good for her. I definitely think she’s handling it well and she will get a lot better with this situation.”

Once the San Marcos’ offense started to get comfortable with McGee, the Purple and White pulled away at the latter end of the set to win the match , 2-0.

The Lady Rattlers took the floor against McKinney in their second match of the day, falling to the Lady Lions in two sets, 25-9, 25-9.

McKinney held a firm advantage on the scoreboard in both sets, and only let the Lady Rattlers gain their leads early in each set. Throughout the rest of each set, the Lady Lions were able to control the match.

“[The match against McKinney] was definitely rough–very rough, but I do think it was a good learning experience for our team,” Reeves said. “We had a very long talk in the locker room about it afterwards. It’s just we went [into the game] like ‘shoot, we don’t have Grace, what are we gonna do?’ And the thing is in that game we made mistakes that didn’t even apply to Grace’s position. It’s all mental and everybody just needs to step up into their own role and focus on that and [work] as a team together and play together. So I think that last game we just weren’t connecting as a team. And it just showed us that we need to work on our connection a lot, and our leadership, as each individual person, not just focusing on having one or two leaders on the board.”

San Marcos will continue their play at home in the Ragin’ Rattler Tournament throughout the weekend. The Purple and White will look to bounce back from their loss to McKinney after finishing the day 1-1 overall.

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