District 12-5A leader College Station A&M Consolidated used its height to sweep Temple 25-18, 25-13, 25-17 at Wildcat Gym to hurt the Tem-Cats’ playoff chances.
Temple (20-21 overall, 6-6 in 12-5A) will finish its regular season with matches against Bryan and Copperas Cove. A&M Consolidated (28-7), which clinched a playoff spot a week ago, remained perfect in district at 12-0 and wrapped up the outright league title.
“Our goal is to win out,” Temple coach Susie Hughlett said. “I told them, ‘If you play with the intensity you played with in Games 1 and 3, they will be very, very competitive games.’
“We’re not hanging it up, that’s for sure.”
Temple had control of the third game, needing a win to fight off a season sweep by A&M Consolidated.
Kaitlin Muniz reeled off four straight aces as the Tem-Cats jumped out to a 6-1 lead.
Temple would lead by five again at 11-6 before A&M Consolidated showed why it hasn’t lost a district match.
The Lady Tigers closed out the third game on a 20-6 run to seal the 25-17 win and a sweep.
“A&M, you can’t ever count them out,” Hughlett said. “They’re a very, very good volleyball team . . . they make mistakes, but they know how to come back from them as well.”
Keyed by easy kills by 6-4 middle blocker Karla Gilbert, the Lady Tigers took advantage of the Tem-Cats’ blocking problems. On numerous occasions, only one Temple player went up to block.
“Our blocking fell apart in that whole run and we were having a single block against a very good hitter, and against them you can’t afford to do that,” Hughlett said.
The Tem-Cats had a strong start in the first game and led by as many as three before the Lady Tigers pulled away late. Gilbert scored Consolidated’s last three points for a 25-18 win.
Errors doomed the Tem-Cats in the second game as the Lady Tigers led comfortably most of the way.
“There were 20 things that I could count on a stat sheet that helped them win that game,” Hughlett said.
Temple senior Patti Kabobel had a team-high six kills and senior Jordan Pickett finished with five. Kacie Easley led with 10 assists and Lauren Mann had a team-high 19 digs.
rschneider@temple-telegram.com
