Marble Falls volleyball’s first practice shows growth, interest
CAPTION: Senior athlete Katie Terrell leaps high to redirect this spike to go to the defensive specialist during the Lady Mustangs’ first organized team activity of the season. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School volleyball program conducted its first official gathering of the 2026 season where the Lady Mustangs split the Max Copeland Gym floor into two courts.
Head coach Zoey Beard-Hanrahan and assistant coach Hailey Wooten walked around the floor with clipboards as they took notes on what they saw.
Beard-Hanrahan had said most of the session was going to be devoted to scrimmages but with a twist. She mixed her veterans, especially seniors Amaris Mitchell-Ochoa, Katie Terrell and Hannah Welch, with some newcomers.
While junior setter Caydence Bielfeldt has been playing with the varsity since the Llano May League, freshman setter Gwen Mattox, the younger sister of football and baseball’s Crawford Mattox, also played with the upperclassmen.
In short that court was so evenly matched that it wasn’t unusual for one team to win several points in a row only for the other to respond once a serve was broken.
The seniors, along with Delilah Guzman and Adrianna Dekay, and junior Brighton Bernard were spread on each side of the net to ensure more parity.
And it worked.
“I have some upcoming studs, I do,” Beard-Hanrahan said. “And it’s just me figuring it out. I have upper classmen that are capable of getting the job done, so I’m always hesitant, but there’s definitely a few freshmen that could be capable of holding their own.”
Once the scrimmages wrapped, the coach told her 40 high school athletes who were in a big huddle that the Aug. 3 practice was going to have more elements to it complete with some running.
“There’s a lot of girls,” she said. “I need the rust knocked off here, so I enjoyed it. I thought that it was very competitive. I got to see a lot. And I kind of wanted a day where you come back and perhaps have some fun on that first day to remember why we do this, and so that was really my thought process on scrimmaging, because everyone wants to play.”
What seniors and the coach want is for every player to bring her best to the court every day to participate in productive practices that will only make them all better.
“Nothing is 100 percent guaranteed, and every practice will determine who’s going to see the court in whatever game is coming up,” Beard-Hanrahan said. “Nothing is guaranteed and as people start to get comfortable, that’s when I start seeing laziness, and that’s when someone could sneak in. I’m glad that they have that mentality.”
Marble Falls will have a week of tryouts before traveling for the Round Rock Westwood for 11 a.m. scrimmages Aug. 7 then welcoming Faith Academy of Marble Falls for scrimmages Aug.8. The subvarsities play at 10 a.m. and the varsities at 11 a.m.
The Lady Mustangs will begin the season at Kyle Lehman Monday, Aug. 10, at 10 a.m.
