Marble Falls volleyball beats Gatesville for bi-district title

The Marble Falls High School volleyball team defeated Gatesville 3-2 Oct. 31 to give the Lady Mustangs their first bi-district crown in at least two decades.

These Lady Mustangs, who advanced to the postseason for the first time since 2009, are onto the area round where they will meet Rosharon Almeta Crawford that opened in 2023 and is part of the Fort Bend Independent School District with about 625 students.

The match will be played at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4, at Brenham High School, 525 A.H. Ehrig Dr. in Brenham.

Against Gatesville, Marble Falls (16-13, 6-6 District 24-4A fourth place) raced to a 25-13, 25-18 lead only to see the Lady Hornets (29-10, 7-3 District 23-4A runner-up) tie the match by winning the next two sets: 25-22, 25-22

Lady Mustangs head coach Zoey Beard-Hanrahan was the least surprised person at Lampasas High School to see Gatesville fight back, she said, because of the playoff format – a single-elimination tournament.

“These teams are fighting for their seasons because it’s one-and-done,” she said.

So during the three-minute intermission between the fourth and fifth sets — in a scenario where the Lady Mustangs had been 0-2 in five-set matches all season — the coach, known for her straight-forward approach, gave her players some truth.

“I put reality on them,” she said. “I told them what our stat was. ‘Guys, five sets has not been good to us, and we tend to just let another team roll over us in that fifth set. Unless you are ready for your season to be over — because they are going to come out fighting with everything they have and we know exactly who they’re going to set — then you have to set the tone first. You have to be the first to five, the first to 10 and then you need to be the first to 15. And y’all are capable of doing that.'”

The Lady Mustangs followed the script. And on match point, senior setter Tessie Bowen, who was on the opposite side of sophomore hitter Brighton Bernard, set the ball a long way to her.

Without hesitation, the sophomore swung from behind the line, going cross court and forcing the Gatesville back row to dive to the side and middle for the dig.

The Lady Hornets missed, and the Lady Mustangs celebrated a match-winning kill that propelled them to the second round.

“It feels phenomenal,” Beard-Hanrahan said. “It feels so good. In the fifth set, we lay down – it’s never in our favor. I don’t know what it is. I’m like, ‘Y’all work so hard to get here. Why do you guys just give up?’ And it’s because some things that happen. Every point in a volleyball game is a momentum changer, that’s what I think. You have to have a short memory of it; forget about your mistakes, forget about the good things at the other side of the net and what they’re doing, and do your job. (Against Gateville), that’s what I felt like happened. They responded when something good happened for the other side – they were eager to be in serve-receive because they knew we had a chance to put that ball down, and I love that.”

Bernard and sophomore Breanna Wilde, who was a late addition to the varsity roster, showed why the coach has them on the varsity.

“Tessie sent the out-of-system set, and Brighton took that swing,” she said. “Though it looked like it was hit high, the defense still went for it, and she won it. She closed that out for us, and I’m so happy for her because she’s such a reliable kid. She comes in and she works and she’s not used to that position at right side. I needed her height out there to block on the outside. (Bernard and Wilde) have solid blocks on that right side. They’re experienced hitters and making that adjustment from the outside or middle, because Brenna was a middle, can be difficult. But they took it in stride and they did it really well this year and this season. They have been just crucial in getting the job done this season.” 

The coach credits captains Kenadi Dalton and Kate McCary, who are seniors, and Amaris Mitchell-Ochoa, a junior, for helping to set the tone for the match. The Lady Mustangs scored in a variety of ways, including service aces. But more than that, the defensive specialists were unfazed by the Gatesville hitters, including senior middle blocker Emma Pollard.

“Kenadi and Katie were so crucial in that back row,” she said. “And it’s the best I’ve ever seen my serve-receive. You could just tell there was something inside of them that did not want this season to be over. The team that I know that they could be every time we play showed up. You could tell. We tend to be a team that just doesn’t show up for the first set and we go through the motions the first time and then we have to fight out of a hole. Well, that just wasn’t (this match). I don’t think Gatesville was ready for how we were just on.”

She noted the Lady Hornets adjusted in the third and fourth sets led by Pollard.

“When she was in the front row, we knew that was where they were going to try to get their points,” Beard-Hanrahan said. “She is a solid player. She found ways to get it down even though I had a big block in front of her. 

“We just couldn’t put the ball down on the inside of their core, and I’m like ‘all right, guys, we have to reset here, because we’re swinging long or we’re just not making smart placement of the ball,'” she added. “I say, ‘If you hit the ball out a bounds twice in a row, then it is your job that third ball to find the court and you have to be smart with it.'”  

But the one constant throughout the match was the Lady Mustangs’ defense.

“There were balls that I thought were gonna hit the floor and then Kate McCary or Katie (Terrell) or Kenadi were just there, and they found a way to get it back up and into play. They just did phenomenal. Everyone locked in. They all read around the block really well. It just came together.”

Not to be outdone, the front row committed to being solid blockers.

“Find where my blockers are and put the ball straight down,” the coach said. “That’s what happened for a few of them. It’s momentum changers. You have a six-(foot)-something middle blocker who can hit a 10-foot line every time there’s no block in front of her, that can be intimidating. I run the defense I run for a reason, but that’s a hard ball to defend when there’s no block in front of it. I worked really hard with my middles this week (Mitchell-Ochoa and senior Payton Dunk) in making sure they set appropriate blocks. And we had way more touches than I thought we would have because they just locked in and found a way in front of (Pollard) and put some hands up. You can’t take a back seat to my defense and my block being there and getting as many touches as we did. If they hadn’t done their job at the net, it would have been a different (outcome).” 

Beard-Hanrahan summed up the feelings of many Lady Mustangs, including current and former players, coaches and fans.

“I was so happy I could cry,” she said. “There’s not a single banner on (the Max Copeland Gym) wall that says volleyball on it. And this year, I knew that they wanted that to be accomplished and by winning the bi-district, they did it. They did it, and I’m so proud of them. It’s wins like that that change your program, and they did it.”