TC lost its opportunity for no losses in its season opener last weekend, and now single-digit losses is in serious jeopardy.
The Lady Leopards fell to No. 14-ranked San Jacinto 25-22, 25-16, 25-21 at TC Gym on Tuesday and dropped to 3-7.
The loss left Reese struggling to find answers as to how to get her team on the right track.
“If I knew, I would have done it between Game 1 and Game 2,” she offered. “Or at least between Games 2 and 3. The girls respond well when I’m (giving instruction), but it’s just something they have to put together in the match.”
And they didn’t put together much against the Lady Ravens, who were led by Brazilian outside hitter Julia Teixeira. Six of her 15 kills came in Game 2.
“We knew (she was their big player),” Reese said. “We worked specifically on outside position blocking because they don’t run a middle. We designated a new technique for the outside and we had a really good practice with it. I’m not quite sure what happened in the match.”
The main thing that happened was the Lady Leopards gave up many weakly contested attacks, creating an almost impossible situation for the defensive specialists to dig Teixeira’s powerful spikes.
But it looked as if Temple would at least be competitive when it rallied back from a 19-16 deficit to take a 20-19 lead late in the first game. After consecutive points by the Lady Ravens gave them the lead back, Elise Swearingen had back-to-back kills to put the Lady Leopards up 22-21.
But then a service error, a bad set and back-to-back hitting errors gave San Jac the game without having to do much work.
That carried into the second game when San Jacinto won seven of the first eight points, three on Teixeira kills.
The early lead was way too much for the Lady Leopards to overcome, but down 16-9 in the game they might have begun to find their identity.
There the teams got involved in a long rally that saw both sides make several big digs and saves. It finally ended when outside hitter Sara Heger, who led TC with seven kills, hit a solid shot through two blockers that fell in the middle of the court.
That play energized the Lady Leopards, and on the next play Swearengin pounded a kill in the middle. That was followed by an unforced error to make it 16-12, and San Jacinto called a timeout.
“That’s what we’ve been having an issue with, is rally points,” Reese said. “This past weekend (at Blinn’s tournament in Brenham) we won the serve/receive points as far as a positive and negative goes and every team had more unforced errors than we did, but we just couldn’t win the rallies.”
While San Jac held on in the game, TC finally had something to build on. The Lady Leopards got out to an early lead in the third game and either led or trailed by one or two points most of the game until the end, when a service error and back-to-back kills by Brazilian Bruna Rocha put the match away.
“What I tell the girls is, ‘Talent-wise, skill-wise, you guys can hang with anyone,’” Reese said. “And maybe better because we have more overall weapons. When you have a foreign player you are banking on them to do everything, so teams get three and just fill in around them. We have more overall players that are studly. They just have to do it and they have to believe they can do it.”
NOTES: TC initially was set to host a tri-match with Panola at 3 p.m. and San Jacinto at 7, but Panola did not make the trip because of Hurricane Gustav affecting East Texas. . . . The Lady Leopards return to action this weekend at the North Central Texas College Tournament in Gainesville and will return home for a tri-match with Wharton County and Brookhaven on Tuesday, beginning at 4 p.m.
mhood@temple-telegram.com
