Entering the final 10 days of the regular season, its Lady Eagles were tied with Rogers and Lago Vista atop the league standings with each team scheduled to play one another.
Salado's Lady Eagles drew first blood on Tuesday.
Highlighted by Brennan Boydstun's 10-point serving spree in Game 1, No. 15-ranked Salado kept the No. 23 Rogers Lady Eagles off balance and put a dent in their title hopes with a 25-17, 25-13, 25-22 win to complete the season sweep.
"We know that if we can take them out of their first-ball reception, that's our goal," Salado coach Bree Holz-Gonzales said. "We've been working a lot on our serving and mixing up the serves. It feels like they're using what they're learning in practice."
Salado (28-5 overall, 8-1 in 25-2A) now turns its attention toward its Friday match at 5:30 against co-leader Lago Vista, which swept Jarrell on Tuesday. A win against the Lady Vikings plus the final two against Florence and Academy would seal the outright league crown for Salado.
If Salado loses to Lago Vista, the Lady Vikings would have to beat Lexington and Rogers (27-6, 8-2) on Oct. 23 to claim the title outright. If Lago Vista beats Salado but loses to Rogers, the three teams would need a tiebreaker to settle the district championship.
Setter Boydstun had 27 assists and four aces. Hadley Joiner had 11 kills and 13 digs and Camryn Bintz and Carling Urben had eight kills apiece while picking up the slack for junior hitter Jenna Sebek, who tore her right ACL on Sept. 22 in Salado's four-game loss to Lago Vista. Playing in only her second match since the injury, Sebek had five kills in limited action.
"They've really rallied around Jenna and said, 'You're going with us. We're not leaving you behind. You're coming with us,' and they've really picked it up defensively and offensively," Holz-Gonzales said. "It took a few matches for them to realize, 'Oh, my god! She's really not there.' Once that was done with, they've really come to terms with, 'OK, I've got to step up and do my job moreso than ever.'"
Cayleigh Drake had 18 kills, Brittany Coots added eight and Kelsey Hudson had 25 assists for Rogers, which will need help to have a shot at the league title.
"It was once again mental," first-year Rogers coach Stacy Rogers said. "There were some things I disagreed with with the referee (in Game 1). We couldn't move on after that.
"We're not going to dwell on the past and we're going to move on and focus on the next two district games (at Lexington on Friday and home against Lago Vista). This match is over and the next time we meet them we'll probably be in the playoffs, so we just have to move on."
The rematch was eerily similar to the first. Only the characters' roles changed.
Whereas Joiner rattled off 14 straight points to propel Salado to a 25-15, 25-11, 25-16 sweep at Rogers on Sept. 18, Boydstun's burst helped turn a 14-13 deficit into a 23-14 cushion.
During the stretch, Boydstun had two unreturnable serves and a kill, Urben had a kill and a block for a point and Joiner pushed a ball to the back corner for another point. Later Urben had a kill and Joiner served an ace to end Game 1.
Salado carried that momentum into Game 2, storming to leads of 7-2 and 17-9. Then Boydstun had two unreturnable serves, Bintz had one and Game 2 ended with defensive miscommunication by two Rogers players.
In Game 3, Salado jumped out to a 9-4 lead in the hope of an easy sweep. Rogers showed its resiliency by overcoming seven service errors in the game to tie it at 22. After Salado's only timeout of the match, Bintz and Drake traded kills before a net violation and Joiner's kill capped the sweep.
"We had better passes in Game 3," Rogers said. "In Games 1 and 2, our passes were either right over the net so they could set it up and kill it or way over there where our setter had to run for it. Passes made a difference but also our serving hurt us in Game 3. We just couldn't put those two together all at once."
cmeister@temple-telegram.com
