Grace Weaver, Brooke Malcik and Chelsea Lomprey were frantically pointing at their teammates trying to get them in position before a puzzled Weaver called timeout.
All of that confusion was caused when a female official misinformed Belton that it was rotating the wrong way.
Maybe it was an innocent mistake or her ploy to make the Lady Tigers' District 12-5A match against Harker Heights more competitive.
Although there were minor moments of lethargy, Belton's entire roster got playing time as the Lady Tigers cruised past the Scarlet Knights 25-13, 25-18, 25-17 to keep them on track for a third straight Class 5A playoff berth.
"Everyone kept the right mindset and everyone stayed in the match," Belton coach Justeen Patton said. "We had some bad points where we didn't go after balls we should have gone after, but that didn't happen for long stretches of time. It was just one play and we came back the next and we were ready."
The Lady Tigers (13-23 overall, 7-5 12-5A) moved into a fourth-place tie with Temple (20-15, 7-5), which was swept by No. 7-ranked and first-place College Station A&M Consolidated on Tuesday.
If Belton wins its final two matches against the league's bottom feeders - Killeen Ellison on Friday and Killeen Shoemaker next Tuesday - the Lady Tigers likely would finish no worse than tied for third.
Pretty impressive for a squad that lost its first 11 matches.
"We came into the season with people having a lot of doubts in us," said senior Lomprey, who had 16 digs and three aces. "Now once we've got to the second part of district it's like, 'We're here. We can do this.' That was our motivation that we can prove everybody wrong.
"At the beginning of the season, it was like, 'Is there going to be a light (at the end of the tunnel)?' Now we might finish higher than we did last year (when Belton was seeded fourth entering the playoffs)."
With Belton needing those two wins to finish the regular season at 9-5 in league play, here is the Lady Tigers' playoff scenario:
- If Bryan (17-15, 8-4) beats Temple on Friday and loses to Consol next Tuesday, Belton would finish tied for third with the Lady Vikings.
- If Bryan beats Temple and pulls off a monumental upset against Consol, the Lady Vikings would be third and Lady Tigers fourth.
- If Temple defeats Bryan and loses to second-place Copperas Cove (29-8, 9-3) next Tuesday, Belton would finish in third place alone.
- If Temple defeats Bryan and Cove, the Lady Tigers would tie for third with the rival Tem-Cats and Bryan would miss the playoffs unless Bryan could somehow upset Consol. If that unlikelihood happened, there would be a three-way tie for the final two playoff berths.
None of those scenarios will matter, though, if Belton doesn't take care of business against two opponents that have combined records of 10-54 overall and 2-22 in district.
After dispatching Heights (10-18, 3-9) on Tuesday, keeping focus against those lesser teams will be the Lady Tigers' biggest obstacle down the stretch.
"It's tough because you have to keep playing to your level," Lomprey said. "It's hard whenever you play undisciplined teams to stay disciplined."
After the Game 1 confusion was cleared up, Belton turned a 3-1 deficit into a 16-6 lead behind Lomprey's three aces and rolled to the easy victory.
In Game 2, the Lady Tigers were a little nonchalant and held a 19-17 lead. Kills by Weaver, Stephanie Stryker and Rebecca Marbach helped Belton pull away. A combined kill by Stryker and Marbach ended the game.
Nearly identical to Game 2, the Lady Tigers led 19-16 in Game 3 before scoring six of the final seven points. Weaver, Stryker and Becky Calahan had a kill, and Madison McMillan added two more to end the match.
Weaver had 10 kills, setter Malcik had 20 assists and Stryker had four blocks.
Freshman Alexus Dunning made her first career start and had a kill and two digs.
Said Patton about Dunning's future: "She has a lot of potential. I'm just waiting for her to unleash."
cmeister@temple-telegram.com
