Defending State Champs from Fayetteville Advance Even With Star Sidelined

1A Player of the Year Brooklyn Jaeger out for the Rest of the Season With Knee Injury

Even without their star player, Brooklyn Jaeger, the Fayetteville volleyball team was able to beat Dime Box in the first round of the 1A volleyball playoffs Tuesday.

Led by 26 kills from Kayme Schley the Lions beat Dime Box 25-13, 25-21, 25-10.

“It was a crazy day, the girls handled the adversity well,” said head coach Clint Jaeger.

After the match Coach Jaeger informed the team that his daughter Brooklyn’s season was over following an MRI diagnosis of a torn ACL among other knee injuries she suffered in Saturday’s district championship tiebreaker against Round Top-Carmine. After hitting a spike in the second set against RTC, Brooklyn just landed wrong, her dad said, and the knee buckled.

The medical diagnosis this week confirmed she will be out 6-12 months. Brooklyn Jaeger is the defending 1A State Tournament MVP and 1A Player of the Year for the defending state champ Lady Lions. Earlier this season Jaeger became the first player in state history to get 3,000 career kills.

“It was rough,” Coach Jaeger said of the post-game scene with his players as he informed them Jaeger was out for the season.

But neither Brooklyn Jaeger or the Lady Lions are done.

Brooklyn, a senior, is a Texas A&M-Corpus volleyball commit and is expected to make a full recovery in advance of the start of her college career.

The Lady Lions, meanwhile are still a formidable team. In the aftermath of Jaeger’s injury Saturday, her teammates rallied to nearly knock off the Cubettes in that tiebreaker match.

“I was so proud of the girls Saturday after Brooklyn went out, the way they battled, especially as I was trying to stay in both dad-mode and coachmode,” Clint Jaeger said.

Then Tuesday the Lady Lions continued battling to knock off Dime Box.

Besides all those kills from Schley Tuesday, Kynley Hurst had five kills and Rylie Dyer had four.

Ruby Guerrero had four aces and Hurst had three. Hurst had 12 digs, Schley had 11 and Dyer had 10. Hurst had 25 assists and Marissa Rohde had

13. The Lady Lions are now 38-6 overall and advance to play Neches (27-9) in the second round Friday at 6 p.m. in Normangee.

“It will be tough against Neches (27-9), they are one of the best teams in the regional if not the state,” Coach Jaeger said. “It would have been tough even with Brooklyn but if we play how I know we can, we can do it. Our girls have the experience – and they know how to handle tough situations.”