Fayetteville Jaeger-Bombs Richards

For three years the Fayetteville volleyball team has been knocking on the door of volleyball greatness.

Now, they appeared poised to knock that door down.

The last three seasons the Lady Lions season have ended in the regional finals, one victory short of going to the state tournament.

They are not there yet this year either, but gosh what a body of work they have put together.

Fayetteville bashed Richards in three sets Monday in Brenham to win their regional quarterfinal match 25-10, 25-16, 25-16.

“They are young and talented. This was the third time we had played them, so they knew us, and we had to fight for our lives in that second set,” said Fayetteville head coach Clint Jaeger.

Those three victories against Richards are part of an overall record that now stands at 42-2 for the Lady Lions.

“It’s crazy. We looked at the schedule before the season, and you don’t ever want to get too far ahead of yourself, but we thought we’d have a lot of wins,” said Clint Jaeger. “But I didn’t think it would be this many.”

Tuesday Fayetteville got 10 aces from Kayme Schley, 13 digs from Marissa Rohde and 10 from Alley Keen, 33 assists from Mattie Konvicka and three kills from Peyton Jurecka. “I’m so proud of this team

“I’m so proud of this team and how far we’ve come,” said Jurecka. The Lady Lions are led by

The Lady Lions are led by Clint’s daughter, a junior, Brooklyn Jaeger. Tuesday against Richards she had an amazing 34 kills.

After many of those kills some Fayetteville fans yelled the rather clever, “You’ve been Jaeger-bombed!”

She has verbally committed to accept a scholarship to play for Texas A&M Corpus Christi.

“This season it’s been fun,” Brooklyn said. “My freshmen and sophomore years we started off slow and progressively got better, but this year we started strong from the get-go. We are doing all the things we needed to do to get better.”

But it’s the state tournament berth that still eludes them. They get a chance at that this weekend.

Friday back at Brenham High School the Lady Lions play in the regional semifinals against San Isidro at 1 p.m. If they win that, they’ll advance to the 1A regional finals Saturday at 11 a.m. against the Round Top-Carmine/ Utopia winner.

That’s the round Fayetteville has lost in each of the last three seasons. But this is a different Fayetteville team.

“They’ve all been here now, been in it before. We’ve got the leadership and togetherness that have developed over the last couple of years. It’s something special,” Clint Jaeger said.

And Brooklyn Jaeger is dominating like never before. “She’s become a lot smarter

“She’s become a lot smarter as a player,” Clint Jaeger said. “Tonight she let it rip, she was firing away, but she’s learned that you don’t always have to swing as hard as you can, you find spots. She’s grown as a player and that’s all on her – she studies the game a lot.”

“Last year we were a bunch of freshmen and sophomores and I felt like we were inexperienced,” Brooklyn Jaeger said. “We experienced that heartbreak in the regional finals. Now we have that mental toughness and we have a great family bond. We feel like sisters.”

Now these “sisters” are two wins from the state tournament.