But Temple coach Susie Hughlett fought back tears as she described her Tem-Cats doing the exact opposite in their Class 5A bi-district match Tuesday night at Bulldog Gym.
“I thought we never quit,” Hughlett said. “But serves hurt us in Game 1. I thought we should have won that game. But we’d get down four or five points, but we kept playing and kept playing. That’s something they’ve done all year. I’m proud of them for not quitting.”
The loss ended the season for the Tem-Cats (21-16) after a fourth-place finish in District 13-5A. The Lady Dragons (24-6), champions of 14-5A, advanced to play The Woodlands College Park - which beat Klein Oak in five games - in an area-round match.
At the start, the Tem-Cats seemed poised to at least put themselves in position for an upset of the Lady Dragons.
Temple opened an 11-6 lead on back-to-back kills from senior Trenette Smith, who led the Tem-Cats with 10. But a service error - one of four in the game - ended an 8-3 run, and Round Rock tied the game at 15, 18 and 20 before taking a 21-20 lead. Temple regained the lead at 23-22 on a Smith kill but gave up the next two points.
An attack error by Emily Danks - who was a force at the net with 2˝ blocks and seven kills - tied the game at 24, but she followed with a kill for the one-point lead. The following Round Rock serve went off the hands of Smith into the stands, giving the Lady Dragons the emotional win.
“We had the lead for so long in that first game that even when they tied it at 15 and again at 18, I still thought we had the momentum,” Hughlett said. “It was the four missed serves that really hurt us. If we won, it would have given us the confidence that we needed.”
Temple never led the middle game but never trailed by more than four until Round Rock scored six straight to go up 2-0 in the match.
In the final game, the Tem-Cats went up 5-4 for their first lead since the first game, but a 10-2 Lady Dragon spurt quickly put the game out of reach.
“Game 3, our emotions got the better of us and they picked up their serving a little bit,” Hughlett said. “I thought our passing was a lot better in Game 3 than it was in the first two games.
“They had phenomenal servers, and we were picking them up, but our hitters weren’t putting the ball away. They were playing not to lose instead of playing to win.”
The Lady Dragons - whose loss to Round Rock McNeil in the district finale was their first district loss in two years - took time to adjust to setter Allie Barnes, coach Diane Watson said. Barnes took over for the injured Michelle Miller, Round Rock’s server most of the season.
“This might have been the weakest we played toward the tail end of our district,” Watson said. “Our setter is hurt - this was not the setter who has been setting for us all year long - and that hurt. It hurts your rhythm when you have a different quarterback in there.
“We came out and played pretty slow, a little bit flat and low intensity level,” she said. “We kind of raised our level of intensity a little bit and helped us get into a momentum shift.”
Each team had just one player in double figures in kills - Shelbi Chipman led Round Rock with 12. But whereas junior Jordan Pickett was second on the Tem-Cats with five, Danks and Rachel Taylor (nine) had more than that for Round Rock.
“I don’t think the kids were intimidated at all,” Hughlett said. “They were ready to play, relaxed, which is real important. Being the underdog, we talked about it all week. We have nothing to lose, and in the first few games we really showed that.”
Last year, Temple finished third in 13-5A and won its bi-district match before losing in the area round. This year, Hughlett said she wasn’t disappointed in the Tem-Cats’ season - despite finishing fourth in the district and being swept in their season series with rival Belton, which Temple swept the previous two years.
“These girls had a goal coming in: Making the playoffs,” Hughlett said. “Doing it the way they did, we didn’t want to finish fourth. But everything that happened this season, the girls fought. Finishing fourth hindered us, but I’m proud of them.”
ecarifio@temple-telegram.com
