OPTIMISM CARRIES THE DAY

Meridian Lady Jackets hit the road to face second place Rio Vista Lady Eagles, then Italy looking for first District 13-2A win heading into second round Tuesday

After wrapping up the first round of District 13-2A play last week still in search for their first league win, the young Meridian Lady Jackets head into the home stretch of the 2024 Texas high school volleyball season with optimism.

“We started out really well and competed with Rio and Italy extremely well in the first round of district,” Meridian volleyball head coach Lyndsie Schur said. “We did have a week of struggle, but I’m excited to see how we respond to that. We have made our goal to make playoffs harder on ourselves, but our girls have never been scared of a hard task.”

As the second round of District 13-2A competition begins this week, the Lady Jackets (0-4 in district, 3-21 overall) will continue a stretch of four straight road trips by traveling to Rio Vista to take on the Lady Eagles (3-1, 16-13) at 6 p.m. Tuesday before making the trip to Italy to face the Lady Gladiators (2-2, 16-11) at 4:30 p.m. Friday.

After playing four consecutive District 13-2A matches home, the Lady Jackets struggled on the road against Itasca last Saturday morning as the Lady Wampus Cats (1-3, 9-16) scratched their way to a convincing 25-16, 25-15, 25-12, straight set victory.

“We had a really rough game against Itasca on Saturday,” Meridian volleyball head coach Lyndsie Schur said. “We struggled to all get on the same page, and that really hurt us on the court.”

Freshman Daylee Gilbert led the Lady Jackets with five kills and three service aces, followed by senior Journey Stauffer and junior Dyna Potter with three kills each. Senior Mariana Paniagua dished out a team-high five assists, three service aces and nine digs, while Mackenzie Borhofen came up with a team-best 10 digs

Wrapping up their four-match homestand last Tuesday, the Lady Jackets were overwhelmed by the district-leading Frost Lady Polar Bears, 25-11, 25-11, 25-13, in straight sets at Yellowjacket Gymnasium.

“We really struggled to pass on Tuesday night against Frost,” Schur said. “I told the girls going in that Frost is historically an aggressive serving team. and they proved to be just that.”

Teaming up at the net against Frost (4-0, 10-10), Gilbert and Potter led the Lady Jackets with four kills apiece, followed by Stauffer with three, while Paniagua dished out 11 assists and Borhofen came up with five digs.

“When our passing isn’t up to par, it can really affect the game and prevent you from running your offense like you would hope,” Schur said. “Our middle blockers really stepped up at the net this game on the offensive side.”

Hoping to find the path to victory coming off an open date in the schedule, the Lady Jackets fell to the Italy Lady Gladiator in straight sets, 25-20, 25-28, 25-18, last Tuesday as Italy won its third straight match to pull up right behind first place Rio Vista (3-0, 16-12) as the Lady Jackets played their third of four straight matches at home.

“That was a tough one against Italy,” Schur said. “We hung right there with them. But unfortunately, mental errors got the best of us. As I have said before, I am extremely proud of the progress that we have made over the season. We showed that we aren’t going to be a team that you can just count out.”

Against Italy, Potter “gave Italy everything she had and then some” on the blocking side of the ball, while Stauffer led the Lady Jackets with four kills followed by Potter with three. Freshman Mailey Padgett picked apart the Lady Gladiator serve receive “and really got us on some great runs.”

Previously on Homecoming Night Sept. 27 at Yellowjacket Gymnasium, Rio Vista held off Meridian in the first two sets before putting the Lady Jackets away in the third, 25-23, 25-22, 25-12, for a hard-earned district opening win.

“I am still beaming with pride for the way that our girls played last night,” Schur said. “Some people don’t realize how hard it is mentally to play on your homecoming night due to the worries of getting ready and making the game on time, excitement for seeing people you haven’t seen in a while, etc. Our girls set all of that to the side and played their absolute hearts out to start district play.

“You know, there have been people say that they were worried we wouldn’t be able to compete against 2A schools, many of which are significantly bigger than us. Our girls proved that to not be the case.”

Against Rio Vista, Stauffer led the Lady Jackets with three kills, seven digs and 12 service receptions, along with Borhofen with six digs and 11 service receptions, Paniagua with three service aces, four assists and six digs, as well as Potter with two blocks.

“Rio was pretty aggressive at the serving line, and it took us a bit to get going. But once we made adjustments, our girls did some very good things. I challenged our girls to have a fighter mentality — “you might get me once, but I’m coming back even stronger.” And they responded so well in every aspect of the game to that challenge.”

Before opening district, Meridian defeated the Three Way Lady Braves in straight sets, 25-11, 25-22, 25-13, as Gilbert smashed a game high 12 kills, four service aces and provided five assists. Contributing to the win, Borhofen delivered six service aces, 11 service receptions and nine assists, Paniagua hit seven kills, dished up 16 assists and four digs, Stauffer spiked seven kills, provided 16 service receptions and seven digs, while Afton Smith came up with eight service receptions and five digs.

“I was very proud of the way our girls played against Three Way,” Schur said. “I challenged them with two different things, and they responded well to both of them. First of all, being able to defend our home court as it was our first game back in our high school gym. And secondly, to come out with the win to set the tone for what we’re going to make our mission in district. Our girls played as one cohesive unit, and I could not be more proud of them.”

Photos by WENDY OROZCO