The Lady Tigers are looking for a signature win under second-year coach Allison Taylor.
And both are looking not to fall behind in the early District 13-5A playoff picture.
The rivals battle at 6:30 p.m. today at Tiger Gym, with the winner moving into no worse than fourth place, the loser into no better than fifth. The top four teams from each district advance to the playoffs, something Temple did last year and hopes to do again this year.
The Tem-Cats (16-10, 1-1) nearly missed the sweep of Belton (13-9, 1-2) last year. They fell behind after three games in the first match the teams played in Temple. But the Lady Tigers lost the last two games, then the Tem-Cats swept the rematch in Belton.
Taylor said her team would not repeat that mistake against their archrival.
“It is a lesson we learned,” said Taylor, whose team has not lost a five-game match this year after going winless in such matches last season. “All teams face that. I don’t think it’s just us. It’s easy to relax when you have a big lead. It’s definitely something we’re aware of, and we’re better at it this year. When we start to relax, they pick each other up on the court.”
After four straight wins against Belton, Hughlett doesn’t think her team is taking a fifth straight win for granted.
“We don’t really focus on who we’re playing. We try to take care of what we need to do,” Hughlett said. “It’s not like we’re like, ‘Against A&M we need to do this or against Belton we need to do this.’ We work in practice to take care of things we need to take care of. And we’ve been so up and down this year, the kids won’t take anything for granted.”
But Hughlett said she’s not totally oblivious to how her players treat a match against Belton.
“As a coach, you’d like to treat this as a normal game,” Hughlett said, “but you know how kids are.”
The Tem-Cats have struggled of late, losing three of four. Two of those came against the cream of the Class 4A crop - undefeated and top-ranked Waco Midway and No. 3 Copperas Cove, whose only loss at the time was to Midway. The Tem-Cats also lost to defending 13-5A champion College Station A&M Consolidated.
The last match for the Lady Tigers was also a loss to Consolidated. Belton was swept 25-9, 25-18, 25-12. Temple fared slightly better against Consolidated, winning the first game but losing the next three - including falling behind 22-2 in one game.
“Playing tough competition in the long run will be good for us going into, hopefully, the playoffs,” Hughlett said. “Our district is really rough, and we are prepared for it.”
Belton will play a non-district match at Wimberley Friday, when the Tem-Cats face district foe Killeen Ellison (8-14, 2-1) at home at 5:30 p.m.
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