The Lady Leopards topped Wharton County 25-18, 27-25, 25-18 in the opening match, then followed with a 25-18, 25-20, 25-19 win over Brookhaven in the late match to improve to 7-10 on the year.
“I don’t usually do that in front of the crowd and the team,” Reese said of her dancing. “But we’ve been tense lately and I was just trying to loosen things up. Volleyball is fun and I think we needed a reminder of that tonight.”
And the Lady Leopards had a lot of fun beating both teams.
The win over Wharton was huge for the Lady Leopards because Wharton topped them 25-23, 22-25, 25-16, 21-25, 15-11 the last weekend in August.
But revenge wasn’t a factor.
“We weren’t looking for revenge; we were just looking for a win,” Reese said. “What we’ve been trying to focus on is just ourselves and make sure our side of the court is taken care of. If we can’t focus on ourselves then it’s impossible for us to prepare for what they’ve got coming.”
The Lady Leopards still had a lot of unforced errors and mental mistakes but were too dominant at the net. Sara Heger had 18 kills, Melissa Padgett added 10 and Heather Lisenbe (Academy) and Elise Swearengin added seven each.
“Sara needed that game,” Reese said. “She needed it just as much as the team need it. Elsie was a tremendous force on defense and keeping the middle. Her and Heather do a really good job as decoys, which is why Sara was able to get so many kills.”
After TC had won the first game, it looked like it would just roll in the second after Heger had three consecutive kills, Precious Sanders added two and Wharton was called for a net violation to allow Temple to take a 6-0 lead.
But things started to turn slightly when Heger’s attempt for her fourth kill of the game went just wide and Wharton built on that to begin to eat away at the lead.
Tied at 11, the teams battled with a few points of each other until Temple finally built a 24-20 lead. But the Lady Leopards had trouble putting the game away, as Wharton used easy serves and played spectacular defense to tie the game at 24.
Temple took a 25-24 lead on a bad pass by Wharton, then Wharton tied it on a solid kill by outside hitter Blair Targac. Heger answered right back with another kill and then a misplay by Wharton closed the game.
TC got plenty of rest before the late match. Wharton took down Brookhaven in five games, pushing back the start of the last match from 8 p.m. to 8:30.
It took the Lady Leopards seven points to get going, but once they did they were tough to stop.
Lisenbe found herself in a rare situation, where at 6-1 she was the tallest person on the court. And she began to take over.
Two kills from the middle of the net, combined with some bad plays from Brookhaven, allowed TC to cut the lead to 8-4. Then a hitting error, a kill by Padgett, another by Lisenbe and one by Sanders tied the game at 8.
After a couple of point exchanges, the Lady Leopards rolled, many times just by playing good defense and letting the Lady Bears make the mistakes.
Lisenbe finished the second match with 13 kills, three blocks and 54.0 hitting percentage.
Swearengin added eight kills and two blocks and Heger seven kills. Cami Statsny added 26 digs.
“Heather was all over the place,” Reese said. “(Brookhaven) could have been focusing on our outsides because they were getting it done, so they gave Heather some free range. And that’s not really good to do if you are an opposing team.”
Despite the doubleheader sweep, Reese knows the Lady Leopards aren’t yet where they want to be, but she knows they are finally heading in the right direction.
“It should build some confidence, especially getting everybody in the game,” Reese said. “A lot of trust was developed out there today.”
It was also a pretty big sweep considering that starting setter Cheyenne Craigen missed her fifth straight match with an injured neck, and freshmen Hillary King and Kylie Presswood split time setting.
“They are getting there. They are a work in progress,” Reese said of her setters. “It’s a lot different than what they’ve done in previous experience. I think they had good games today. The will get there when they are really needed.”
And as for Reese’s dancing skills? Reese had one suggestion: “People will just have to come to our next home game to see an encore,” she said.
They’ll have that chance Sept. 23, when Temple hosts another tri-match with Midland and Tyler beginning at 4 p.m.
mhood@temple-telegram.com
