The Colleyville Courier

Lady Panthers to Face Coppell in Bidistrict

By KEVIN LONNQUIST, STAFF WRITER

Health and consistency are a pretty good combination for a team to have to get into the postseason. Colleyville Heritage's volleyball team found both as it marched back into the playoffs this year.

After suffering through an ominous 2-4 start in District 5-5A, the Lady Panthers put together an impressive second-half run. They won seven of their last eight, including Tuesday's impressive 25-16, 25-9, 25-9 victory against Richland.

Colleyville Heritage (23-13, 9-5) clinched third place in the district behind Carroll and Keller and will meet Coppell, the No. 2 seed in District 6-5S, in the Class 5A Region I bi-district round.

"It was just a matter of getting our people back and healthy and having them play like they could," head coach Libby Torres said. "At one point, we were losing people at the wrong time of the year. But when they came back, they came back strong."

There is a better feeling than last year when the Lady Panthers finished in fourth place, one game behind the third-place team in the district. Of course, that was when 5A districts were only taking three teams to the playoffs. Now, they are taking four.

The two biggest turning points were when senior middle blocker Christy Lindelow returned following a month-long absence with an ankle injury. The other came from senior JOrdan Jesberg. Jesberg, nursing a shoulder injury, was limited to only backcourt play, but then was cleared to return to hitting in early October.

In her limited time in the front court, Jesberg is averaging 3.6 kills per game. Lindelow is collecting about three blocks. There has also been consistent play from senior setter Evoni Darling.

Those two changed the dynamics of the offense and seemed to get into a rhythm that had been lacking for the better part of the season. But Torres said the turning point was when Colleyville won at Keller in the second game of the second half of the district season.

"We were starting to click pretty strong," Torres said. "Obviously, we had to play around our injuries, and we just kept plugging."