But there were indeed moments Tuesday when the improving Cisco Lady Wranglers did give the three-time Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference champion Temple College Lady Leopards fits.
But in the end, the Lady Leopards showed exactly why they have been so dominant the last few years and prevailed 25-19, 25-19, 25-16 at TC Gym.
“It’s a win, so I’m happy about that,” Temple coach Mary Reese said. “I don’t want to take anything away from (Cisco), because they have improved a lot since the first time we played them.”
While it was obvious throughout that the Lady Leopards were the superior team, they looked like a team just trying to cruise to the national tournament.
For most of the first part of the first set, Cisco had the lead, winning more points on bad blocks and mistakes by Temple than by its own doing.
But down 13-11, TC (22-12 overall, 9-0 NTJCAC) then began to do what it’s been trained to do and turned up the heat. At 17-all the Lady Leopards went on a dominating 5-0 run highlighted by a kill on a overpass by Elise Swearengin and a kill on the left side by Precious Sanders.
“In the timeout I told them to get the job done,” Reese said. “I was very real with them. ‘Y’all are playing horrible. Time to get it done.’”
That the Lady Leopards did, at least for a while. The second set went pretty much the same way, with TC finding itself down 10-9 before again turning it on.
Reese had no explanation for why her team seemed to not be playing its best.
“We just had a conversation about how important this part of our season is,” she said. “No matter who we are playing we need to play them as if we are at the national tournament. And I’m sure they didn’t have it in their mind, ‘Oh, well, it’s just Cisco, I don’t care.’”
Indeed, that would have been a big mistake had they thought that way. Cisco showed that it might soon be a force to be dealt with, as Emanuelle Santos and Keasa Johnson got in some powerful kills at opportune times and the defense saved some balls that looked doomed.
But the Lady Leopards were even better. Academy product Heather Lisenbe controlled the middle and hitters Melissa Padgett and Sara Heger dominated the outside. Lisenbe ended with nine kills and four blocks, while Heger and Padgett had a combined 16 kills and seven blocks.
“Heather had a great game,” Reese said. “She did exactly what I needed her to do, which is listen to the people behind her. I appreciated her today because she listened, even when it was hard for her to make a cut and go a different way. She listened to her teammates and put it in the right spot.”
More specifically, that meant that 6-1 middle blocker Lisenbe, who cherishes the nickname “Big Nasty” for her dominating presence at the net, was getting as many shots in by soft placements as she was by hard spikes.
The win put Temple within one win of a perfect conference record, which the Lady Leopards can achieve when they host Vernon at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
“I think (this game) was mental,” Reese said. “We have to do some soul searching about what we want to accomplish because we know we can go through conference undefeated and still go to the conference tournament and lose.”
mhood@temple-telegram.com
