News 10/18/2006

Volleyball Roundup

Heritage wins third in a row.

By ANTHONY ANDRO
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

The Colleyville Heritage Lady Panthers aren't just playing good volleyball. They're picking the right time to do it.

The Lady Panthers swept Grapevine 25-13, 25-23, 25-20 Tuesday night in a District 5-5A match. Colleyville Heritage (22-13, 7-5) has won three matches in a row, all against teams in the thick of the playoff race

"This was our hardest stretch, and we knew we had to take care of those if we wanted to keep playing in November," said Colleyville Heritage coach Libby Torres, whose team is tied for third place with Northwest. "We're clicking and we're peaking at just the right time. We're finally getting comfortable with each other, and that was the key tonight."

The Lady Panthers showed that comfort by the way they spread the ball around. Nine players had at least one kill for Colleyville Heritage.

Colleyville Heritage won Game 1 despite having only seven kills. Grapevine (17-19, 6-6) set the tone for its night by struggling with its hitting and passing. The Lady Mustangs allowed 13 points on either hitting or passing miscues.

Grapevine rebounded in Game 2 and took a 16-10 lead. But Colleyville Heritage charged back behind five kills from Jordan Jesberg and the game was tied at 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23. Evoni Darling's tip gave Colleyville Heritage a game point and a Grapevine hitting error ended the game.

The Lady Panthers jumped to an 18-10 lead in the final game by spreading the ball around as eight Lady Panthers had kills in the game. Jesberg ended the match with her team-high 14th kill.

"We've been focusing on teamwork, and that's one of the things we were focusing on tonight," said Darling, a senior setter who had 17 assists and three kills. "We practice spreading the offense to make it harder on the other team. We did a good job of that tonight, but we still know we've got two more matches to win."

Amanda Anderson had six kills for Colleyville Heritage, and Christy Lindelow added five. Brittany Lehman led Grapevine with 15 kills, and Grace Graham had 16 assists for the Lady Mustangs.

COLLEYVILLE HERITAGE 3, GRAPEVINE 0