Lady Leps Stage Big Comeback To Beat Smithville in Volleyball
Better late than never.
Without one of their stars, Lanie Doyle, the La Grange volleyball team stumbled through their first two sets against Smithville Saturday in an important district match.
But just in time, the Lady Leps found some chemistry, and staged an epic comeback, winning the final three sets to claim the victory.
“We just took a nap the first couple of sets,” said La Grange middle blocker Ryann Marshall. “It felt really good to come back and play like we should have.”
La Grange lost the first two sets 17-25 and 25-27, but won the third set 25-21, claimed the fourth set 25-15 when Camille Gonzales went on a scoring spree, and then never trailed in the fifth set, winning 15-8 fueled by long serving stretch by Marshall.
The win keeps the Lady Leps near the top the district standings with a 2-0 record and further wipes away the stain of a rough non-district portion of their schedule. The Lady Leps’ overall record is 7-12.
“I just think it took us a while this season to figure out how to play as a team,” Marshall said.
“2-0 (in district) sounds so nice,” said La Grange head coach Leslie Coltrain. “It wasn’t looking like it was going to be that way after the first two sets.”
Coltrain said keeping senior Natalie Blackwell on floor more during the final three sets was a big key to the comeback.
Natalie Blackwell had a big game with 16 kills and 25 digs.
Coltrain said her team’s passing improved in the latter half of the match as well.
“Good things happen for us when we pass the ball well,” she said.
Sophomore Camille Gonzalez and senior Ryann Marshall both had dominant stretches at the net against a shorter Smithville team, Gonzalez had 14 kills and Marshall has 13 to go along with two blocks.
Maddi Fritz had 12 kills and 21 assists.
Brynna Stackhouse led in assists with 26 and Megan Brothers led in digs with 35.
The Lady Leps return to action Tuesday at 6 p.m. against Austin Achieve, which is winless in district so far.
A big seperation in volleyball ability seems to have emerged between the three local schools (La Grange, Giddings and Smithville) when compared to the Austin-area schools in the district.
“We’re not overlooking anyone,” Coltrain said.
District 20-4A Volleyball
Giddings 3-0
La Grange 2-0
Smithville 2-1
Manor New Tech 1-1
Austin Eastside 0-1
Austin LBJ 0-2
Austin Achieve 0-3