Marble Falls volleyball beats Almeta Crawford for area title

CAPTION: Junior Katie Terrell (11) leaps into the team huddle with sophomore hitter Brenna Wilde (left, center) senior middle blocker Payton Dunk, junior setter Hannah Welch, senior athlete Kate McCary and senior libero Kenadi Dalton after the Lady Mustangs defeated Rosharon Almeta Crawford on a point that is in Marble Falls sports lore. Marble Falls is now 3-0 at Brenham High School in the postseason dating back to the Mustang football program winning bi-district titles in 2020 and 2021. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography

The Marble Falls High School volleyball team’s magical season continues thanks to beating Rosharon Almeta Crawford 3-1 Nov. 4 at Brenham High School.

The Lady Mustangs (17-13, 6-6 District 24-4A fourth place) will meet Bullard (33-10, 10-0 District 17-4A champion) in the Class 4A Division I Region III semifinals at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6, at Waco Robinson High School, 700 W. Tate in Robinson. Admission is $5 per person, cash only at the door.

Leading the fourth set 24-23, Marble Falls junior hitter Katie Terrell stepped behind the service line to put the ball in play.

To Almeta Crawford’s credit, Lady Mustangs head coach Zoey Beard-Hanrahan said, the Lady Chargers went for the spike from the middle to their left directly in front of the Marble Falls bench, which was going to stay in bounds to win the point.

But Terrell, who had stepped back on the court after serving, dove to her right and stretched her arm with all she had.

Not only did the junior get to the ball, she passed on target to junior setter Hannah Welch, who simply needed to deliver a solid set to senior athlete Kate McCary, who was waiting on the left side.

McCary, who “had been on” all night according to her coach, swung and watched as the ball bounced off the Lady Chargers never to be returned and trigger a purple and white celebration.

“I think that the secret weapon to this team that has really snuck up on people — and they have not been ready for — is my back row, my defense and serve-receive,” Beard-Hanrahan said. “They deliver the ball exactly where it needs to go. And then whenever they’re attacking on the other side, my defense has done a great job this season of being able to read it and being able to cheat one way or the other and then deliver the ball that needs to be delivered so that we can stay competitive.” 

Beard-Hanrahan said she had to go back to the film to see the point play out.

“I didn’t even see Katie in that spot,” she said. “I was looking at the net as (the Lady Charger) was hitting it. I was like, ‘All right. Here we go, we gotta fight through this again. We have to win these two points so we don’t have to go to a fifth set.’ And all of a sudden, it felt like Katie came out of nowhere. But that ball one hundred percent would have been in if Katie hadn’t made that adjustment or that split second decision to just lean a little bit to her right and get that ball up.” 

She noted that before the point was played, she looked at Welch and gave her one directive.

“The only thing I said to her was ‘make the right decision on who to set for this last point, make the right decision,'” the coach said, “and I’m so happy that me and Hannah were on the same wavelength, because McCary was hungry. She had a phenomenal game. McCary is a dog, and she knows how to get it done, and so that that was why I had pushed Hannah to set her because I needed that match to be done. I needed somebody who could finish it strong and put the ball down when we needed it most, and that person in that front row at the time was McCary.” 

But Beard-Hanrahan went back a few seconds earlier. After Terrell served, senior middle blocker Payton Dunk slid to her right to assist sophomore hitter Brenna Wilde with a double block, which was crucial for what happened the rest of the play, she said.

“I needed my middle to pull the middle on the other side,” the coach said. “That’s what gave us the split that McCary was able to hit off of, and it ricocheted right in bounds on their side of the net.”

Beard-Hanrahan became emotional as she thought back to Terrell’s dig that goes down as one of the finest moments in the history of Marble Falls sports.

“You’re going to make me choke up cause that girl has shown up for playoffs,” the coach said. “Honestly, she showed up. She’s an all-around player just like McCary. There’s a reason I can rely on her in the back. It’s the one thing everyone kept saying – she completely went all out and dug the ball. She refused to give up. She refused to let that ball hit the floor, and that was why Hannah got the set she was able to get to McCary, who then put that ball down and finished it for us.”

Marble Falls led 19-12 only to witness the Lady Chargers go on a run.

“You know that feeling you get when you’re out there and you’re up by so much that they’re going to give up?” Beard-Hanrahan said. “Teams that get this far in the playoffs don’t give up. There’s always a chance, there’s always a fight.”

Before the heroics of the fourth set, the Lady Mustangs had to get through “a confusing and infuriating first set,” she said.

Marble Falls had a four-point lead only to see the Lady Chargers win 10 consecutive points to close out the set 25-12.

“That team was scrappy, and they had some really good options on that front row to get the job done,” the coach said. “And when we made it easy on them or gave them a free ball, that’s exactly what they did.”

Beard-Hanrahan, who noted her team was experiencing the same slow start it had in different matches of the regular season, said she implored her athletes to step back on the floor and compete.

The Lady Mustangs responded by winning the next two sets 25-20 and 25-14.

“They punched in,” the coach said. “It was amazing. It could have been a lot of contributing factors — the long bus ride, the long day, just everything — but they won because when I asked them to lock in, they locked in. And then they shut down their biggest players. I couldn’t be more proud. I could not be more proud. They did phenomenal.”

CAPTION: The 2025 Lady Mustangs are Deliah Guzman (front row, left), Kenadi Dalton, Hannah Welch, Britney Guevara, Payton Dunk, Lily Stein, Adrianna Dekay, manager Kacie Cotton; Amaris MItchell-Ochoa (back row, left), Tessie Bowen, Breanna Wilde, Brighton Bernard, Vivian Buerger, Katie Terrell, assistant coach Marisa Miller, Kate Dykes, assistant coach Hailey Wooten and head coach Zoey Beard-Hanrahan. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography