In Battle for First Place, Giddings Downs La Grange
In a battle for early control of first place in District 20-4A, Giddings came to La Grange Saturday and beat the Lady Leps in four sets in front of the biggest crowd of the season so far.
Fans won’t have long to wait for the next chapter, as these two rivals square off again Friday at 4:30 p.m. in another district battle.
“Friday I want to see the same effort, the same heart, the same never-say-die mentality we showed today,” said La Grange head coach Leslie Coltrain. “I was extremely proud of our effort today.”
But with La Grange missing two starters, Lanie Doyle and Ryann Marshall, Giddings was just too much.
Giddings improved to 5-0 in district and 13-8 overall with Saturday’s win. La Grange fell to 4-1 in district and 9-13 overall.
The Lady Buffs took the first set 25-18 before La Grange evened things with a 26-24 win in set two. La Grange was down 23-30 and 24-22 in that second set, but two kills by Hailey Hill and some tough serving by Brynna Stackhouse fueled the comeback.
Giddings bounced back to win the third set 25-22 and then they rolled to a 25-12 win in the fourth set.
“Giddings didn’t give up, they are scrappy, they play every ball,” said La Grange libero Megan Brothers. “We just need to do the little thing right when we play them again, clean up our game.”
In Saturday’s match, Natalie Blackwell led in kills with 13 and Maddi Fritz had 10.
Megan Brothers led in digs with 31, and she also had two aces.
Brynna Stackhouse had a team-high 18 assists and Fritz added 14.
Blackwell had two blocks.
Coltrain said Blackwell’s performance has been emblematic of the versatility the team has had to show with so many regular contributors sidelined. Besides Doyle and Marshall, Maddi Mach is still out with an injury.
“Natalie played middle for us last year, she’s been super effective for us outside and then we ask her to switch back to the middle and she goes out there and kills it. Absolutely kills it,” Coltrain said. “This one’s hard because we fought really hard and we were playing hard every point. There was not a point we took off.”
Saturday’s loss came in the heels of a victory Friday for the Lady Leps, who went to Austin and downed LBJ that night in district action 25-8, 25-9, 25-7.
Hailey Hill and Fritz each had six kills in that match and Blackwell had five.
Brothers and Blackwell each had 11 digs. Stackhouse had 13 aces and 15 assists.
Fritz had eight assists and CiCi Barcenas had one block.
Before Friday’s game at Giddings, the La Grange girls play this Tuesday at Austin Eastside Memorial.