They just picked the wrong time for another cold streak.
The Temple Tem-Cats lost to District 13-5A foe Bryan 24-26, 25-13, 26-24, 27-25 Friday at Wildcat Gym to fall into fourth place after the first half of district play.
Temple (18-12, 3-3 in 13-5A) trailed 19-10 in the fourth game but got a couple of points from Jordan Pickett - who finished with 25 kills - and some Bryan miscues to score five straight. After another point for the Lady Vikings (20-8, 5-1), the Tem-Cats scored four in a row, capped by a block from Kat Wellman and Talia Brown-ridge.
Pickett was later blocked by Bryan as the Lady Vikings opened a 24-22 lead but recorded a kill on the next point. The official first ruled it out of bounds but, after persuading from Temple players, judged it to be tipped by Bryan. On the next point, seemingly a kill by Bryan’s Tiffany Regmund, the official ruled Regmund violated the net, giving Temple a 25-24 lead.
Bryan coach Caroline Simpson, livid at the back-to-back calls against her team, was yellow carded. But the Lady Vikings scored the next three points, the last on a double-touch by Tem-Cat setter Katy Houchin.
“Mistakes were made; just a bad pass, that’s it,” Temple coach Susie Hughlett said. “It could have gone either way. I’m just glad the kids fought back the way they did. We’ve done that all year long. It’s just a game of luck sometimes, and I felt we played really well.”
Temple rallied in the first game, scoring three straight points down 24-22 when Pickett had a kill, then assisted on a block with Wellman to tie it. A quick dump over the next by Wellman gave the Tem-Cats a 25-24 lead, then Pickett ended it with a block. That game featured 10 ties before Temple won.
The Tem-Cats were blown out in Game 2, then lost a 16-11 lead in Game 3.
“We just broke down, that’s all,” said Hughlett, whose team travels to Killeen Shoemaker on Tuesday. “It’s just a mental thing and we’ve been struggling with it all year. We had the guts to come back though.
“They were real determined and I tried to tell them, ‘All we need is a pass.’ Our passing was pretty good in Game 4, I didn’t think it was horrible, but our hitters weren’t putting the ball away when they needed to.”
ecarifio@temple-telegram.com
