The Aledo volleyball playoff journey continues when the Ladycats face the Amarillo Sandies today in a regional quarterfinal match in Vernon.
The first serve will be at 6:30 p.m. today at Vernon High School.
The Ladycats (29-16) defeated Lubbock Cooper and El Paso Chapin to reach the third round, while Amarillo (32-13, 3-5A runner up) recorded playoff wins over a pair of El Paso schools – Jefferson and El Dorado.
Ladycats head coach Claire Gay said Amarillo runs a one-setter offense with an offensively-active setter, junior Hannah Shipman.
“Amarillo runs a 5/1 (one setter) offense with a middle who loves to run the slide,” Gay said. “We haven’t seen much of that since district started, but the teams we have seen that from we have handled well. Their setter averages about 9-14 kills a game so you know she is coming in very offensively sound.
“I think this match is always a match of wills long before I arrived here at Aledo. The fact we beat them out last season in the regional tournament semifinals will also give them a little bit more reason to come out swinging against us.
“We will anticipate that kind of mentality and hopefully capitalize on that quickly.”
Aledo fell in the first set in the last round against Chapin before rallying to take the next three games and the match. Gay is hoping for a better start against the talented Sandies.
“Our girls just have to relax,” she said. “They got extremely uptight against Chapin which forced errors on our side of the net that we haven’t seen all season. But once we relaxed we definitely played to our potential and took care of the ball.
“We are so versatile and that will help when creating match ups and deciding on a line up. These girls have a ton of fight in them still, and I know that the atmosphere of the match will help their play. They compete and they have been here in this situation last year with Grapevine.
“I believe that we have yet to reach our potential and think today is a great time to show it.”
The winner of the match will advance to the regional tournament in Lubbock (Nov. 9-10) and face the winner of the Grapevine/Birdville regional quarterfinal match.
To follow the action, look for the blog on The Community News Facebook page.
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