AIMING FOR HIGHER GROUND

After falling to Covington for second place in District 18-1A, Meridian Lady Jackets make fourth straight playoff trip to face Bi-District playoff opponent Prairie Valley Tuesday in Mineral Wells

In their fourth season since restoring the previously defunct volleyball program, the Meridian Lady Jackets will be making their fourth straight trip to the Class 1A state volleyball postseason tournament. But after securing third place in District 18-1A and posting a convincing victory in their final regular season match of the year, the Lady Jackets believe they still have come unfinished business.

With the restored program looking for its first playoff win, the Lady Jackets (4-4 in district, 10-17 overall) will take on the District 17-1A runner-up Prairie Valley Lady Bulldogs (6-3, 11-17 overall) playing at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Mineral Wells.

“I’m very proud of the girls for doing their job and getting back in the playoffs,” Meridian volleyball head coach Lyndsie Schur said. “It shows that they have taken pride in what it means to be a Lady Jacket and want to leave the program better than they found it. In order to accomplish our goal of Bi-District champs, we will need to execute well on our side of the net by minimizing unforced errors. And we must have the next-point mentality whenever errors do happen.”

Carrying some momentum into the postseason, Prairie Valley won six of their last eight matches to surge ahead of third place Forestburg (5-4, 10-10) while finishing behind district champion and 14th-ranked Saint Jo (9-0, 28-11).

“Prairie Valley will be a good match up for us,” Schur said. “They are aggressive and hustle, just as we do. They do single block on defense, which is something we don’t see a lot. So I have challenged our hitters to really look for the holes of the defense and swing big when the opportunity presents itself.”

Wrapping up the regular season on a winning note, the Lady Jackets swept past the Morgan Lady Eagles (1-7, 1-16) , 25-15, 25-18, 25-19 in straight sets last Tuesday on Senior Night at Yellowjacket Gymnasium.

Junior Journey Stauffer led Meridian with nine kills and four digs, while senior Eve Dirkse smashed a game-high 10 service aces and senior Canyon Stauffer delivered eight set assists and three kills. Also contributing to the win, senior Hope Cabrera and sophomore Jasmin Brown slammed four kills each, while junior Mariana Paniagua presented seven set assists.

“I am very pleased with how we played against Morgan,” Schur said. “I challenged the girls with two things, and they executed both. One was to defend their court. Last time we played Morgan, we went to five sets and barely pulled out the victory due to a lot of unforced errors on our side. I wanted them to play hard and win in straight sets and we did.

“I also challenged them to get win number 10, which would double the most wins since we restored the program. I knew we should accomplish that goal, and I’m proud of the way that we did it.

“For a young program like us, you’re always pushing for progress. But to accomplish our goal of double wins in program history, that is big. That goal would not have been possible to reach without the leadership of our seniors, buy-in from the underclassmen, and support from our school, families and community. “

After suffering a straight set loss on the road to the Class 1A’s top-ranked Blum Lady Bobcats (8-1, 34-6) Oct. 17, the Lady Jackets fell in a hard-fought, four-set battle with the Covington Lady Owls, 25-20, 25-20, 21-25, 25-15, on the road in a showdown for second place in district. In the first round of district, the Lady Owls swept past Meridian, 25-21, 25-21, 25-21, in a hard-fought, three-set decision.

“We really played hard Friday night against Covington,” Schur said. “Our energy was right where it needed to be. Unfortunately, we had too many unforced errors on our side of the court. We did some very good things that I was very happy to see. Now we just need to put it all together.”

In the district’s second round rematch against Blum, the Lady Bobcats swept past Meridian, 25-6, 25-5, 25-7, with relative ease, looking like the team many picked as the favorite to win the state championship. Against Blum, Canyon Stauffer led the Lady Jackets with two kills and two set assists, Paniagua delivered two service aces and two set assists, while Journey Stauffer came up with three digs.

“As always, Blum is a very tough opponent,” Schur said. “We really struggled passing out of serve-receive tonight because they are just such great servers. When you struggle out of serve-receive, it’s very hard to get any type of rhythm going. Although we didn’t pass well out of serve-receive, the girls still fought hard the entire match.”

Before getting an open date in the schedule, the Lady Jackets opened the second round of district by dismantling the Kopperl Lady Eagles in straight sets, 25-23, 25-17, 25-23, to set up the crucial stretch run. Dirkse, Journey Stauffer and Brown led Meridian with three kills apiece, while Paniagua delivered five service aces and seven set assists in the win.

“We played very well as team tonight,” Schur said after the match. “Kopperl is a very scrappy team and kept us on our toes all night. Because of that, we were out of position at times, and the girls really had to rely on their teammates to get the job done. I’m proud of them for digging deep and finishing the job in three sets.”

Also contributing against Kopperl, Canyon Stauffer and Journey Stauffer led Meridian with four digs each, while Canyon Stauffer came up with four set assists and Journey Stauffer smashed five service aces.

Bouncing back from a disappointing first round loss to Covington, the Lady Jackets closed out the first round of District 18-1A competition with a hard-fought, five-set victory on the road against the upstart Morgan Lady Eagles, 25-21,24-26,22-25,25-23, 15-11. The Lady Jackets knew going into the match that they needed a victory to keep their postseason hopes realistically alive. And without a doubt, it did not come easy.

“We started strong in the beginning of the first set, then really seemed to get out of rhythm,” Schur said. “We played hard all night, we just didn’t make the best decisions at times. All of that to say, the girls dug deep and found a way to get the win.”

Journey Stauffer led the Lady Jackets with 15 kills and six service aces while Canyon Stauffer provided a team-high 20 set assists along with nine kills, five service aces and seven digs. Cabrera delivered six service aces, Dirkse contributed four blocks, Paniagua provided seven set assists and junior Mackenzie Borhofen came up with seven digs.

“It wasn’t pretty by any means,” Schur said. “But just as I’ve told the girls since I’ve been here, if we keep doing the little things right, the wins will start showing up on the scoreboard. With this win, we have doubled our wins from last year. And that wouldn’t be possible without the buy in from each girl in the program.”

But in the showdown to take sole possession of second place behind Blum, Meridian suffered a three-set sweep against Covington, 25-15, 25-13, 25-19, in the first round of district. In the losing effort against the Lady Owls, Dirkse and Journey Stauffer led Meridian with four kills each, Cabrera delivered five service aces, Paniagua provided eight set assists and Brown came up with eight digs.

“Obviously, the outcome of the game wasn’t what we wanted at all,” Schur said. “We played hard. But unfortunately, we fell apart in key moments in the game. This definitely makes the second round of district extremely important.

“As long as we execute on our side of the net, it will be a completely different game. We just have to worry about playing Lady Jacket volleyball. I would like to thank the fans for giving us a very large and loud crowd.”