But still, they weren’t expecting it to be this easy.

The Lady Leopards dominated No. 16 Laredo 25-23, 25-18, 25-18 at TC Gym on Saturday in a non-conference volleyball contest.

“I was prepared to be here (two hours),” Temple coach Mary Reese said of the match that took just over one hour. “Honestly, I thought it was going to be a battle.”

While not a conference match, the win was crucial for the Lady Leopards who are trying to earn a ranking in the National Junior College Athletic Association poll for the first time in school history. The Lady Leopards (17-11) were among the teams also receiving votes in the last poll and the win over Laredo will not only be big as far as the poll goes, but also for the Lady Leopards national title hopes.

“It’s a mandatory win,” Reese said. “Our goal is when we get to nationals to be ranked higher than we have been the past few years, then we’ll play somebody more even with us and have a better chance to win. This is definitely going to move us up. Either we will be on the top of the watch list or going to be ranked.”

If they weren’t being watched before, the Lady Leopards opened a lot of eyes on Saturday.

It looked early like it was going to be a classic fight to the end. On several of the first few points, Laredo’s defense dug up almost every hard spike, and Temple, in turn, did the same on Laredo’s, which created several long rallies.

But it didn’t take long for the Lady Leopards to take off, going on a 10-0 run to break open the first set at 13-3 before they just put it on cruise control to the end of the set. That almost got them in trouble as they went up 24-17 but made several mistakes as Laredo closed it to 24-23. But Temple’s Sara Heger ended the set with a cross-court kill.

“I don’t know if (the 10-0 run) was key, but it was definitely domination,” Reese said. “We did not keep that, though. We let them come back with small mistakes and that’s something we have to work on.”

After winning the first set, the Lady Leopards’ intensity was noticeably down for the second, and Laredo (17-2) took advantage, taking an 8-4 lead.

“We needed to come back and start strong and definitely leave a message,” Reese said. “(Between games) we talked about making sure we don’t give them an opportunity to win. We almost did when they led 8-4, but that’s when I called a timeout and the girls turned it on.”

A kill by Academy product Heather Lisenbe and a block by Cheyenne Craigen got TC back to within two and more important, got the small crowd into the match.

Craigen, the Lady Leopards’ starting setter, did her part by varying up her sets to keep Laredo’s defense off balance. Each of the hitters did her part also by making few hitting mistakes as TC got back into the set, then took over at the end, winning the final six points for the second game.

The decisive point may have come with Temple up 22-18 and Laredo seemingly in control of a rally. A nice spike had Temple’s defense scattered and after a dig and a save off the dig, Craigen chased and saved a ball off the right side of the court. She was able to get enough on it to get it back to Laredo’s side. With Temple still out of position and the ball traveling quickly over the net, Laredo’s Heather Sanchez saw an opportunity for what appeared to be an easy kill.

But Temple’s Precious Sanders saw the same thing and jumped up just a moment after Sanchez in order to hammer back Sanchez’s shot for the point. Elise Swearengin then served an ace off the top of the net and Sanders finished off the game with another dominating kill.

Sanders led the team with nine kills, Lisenbe added seven and Heger five, while Craigen had 26 assists, two blocks and six digs.

Like Reese, Craigen was a bit surprised at the ease of the match.

“Yeah it was (a surprise),” she said of the sweep. “But at the same time, I knew we could do it. They kind of made us mad because they got here before we did and turned on the radio and were practicing before we got here. Just them acting like this was their gym kind of made us want to beat them even more.”

The Lady Leopards will be at Vernon on Tuesday and will return home Friday to face Panola.