Lady Dawgs eliminate Gatesville

It was Burnet’s first return to the playoffs in nearly six years and improved the season record of the senior-laden team to 27-14 under first-year coach Bethany Grissom.

“I am very proud of the girls for getting a win in the playoffs under their belt,” Grissom said. “Every one of our players played together. The girls showed a lot of fire and took care of business.” 

 The District 8-3A Lady Dawgs dominated from the onset with a relentless attack that sent the District 7-3A co-champs reeling, 25-17, 25-23, 25-21. 

“We’ve been talking about getting that fire back into their eyes,” Grissom said. “I think I saw a sign of it against Fredericksburg, but it was there in full force against Gatesville. You would have never known that they don’t have any experience in the playoffs. They played like they were used to it.”

Gatesville head coach Rickey Phillips, who watched his team drop to a 30-11 season mark, gave Burnet all the credit for their win.

“They hit all night long and beat us in all phases of the game,” Phillips said. “We just got our tails whipped.”

Grissom applauded the performance of her team’s defense.

“Our defense played with a lot of heart and really rallied,” she said. “They were going for every ball, whether it came up or not. When Gatesville was able to set it up, our defense was there to dig it.”

The Burnet coach also pointed to effective serving as a critical factor.

“The girls served tough, which kept them from getting into their offense,” Grissom said. “We missed some serves at crucial times, but overall we were serving tough at them the whole night. The girls knew that they would have to play aggressively in order to beat a good team like that.” 

With an intense reactionary defense, the Lady Dawgs set their hitters into a “launch” mode in the opening set. Outside hitter Eden Sultemeir drilled two strikes, powered hits through defenders, scored an ace and delivered five-straight points with her zooming serves to guide Burnet to a 15-10 lead.  

In the middle, Vandi Vann added some high-reaching hits and a relentless Emily Vaughan kept the Lady Hornets scrambling. Burnet extended its lead to 22-14 and closed it with a strong Sultemeir hit that was tipped out of bounds.

The Lady Dawgs carried their intensity over to the second set and unleashed an all-out attack. Laura Servise opened with a booming kill, two whistling assaults and followed it with an ace. Sultemeir continued her assault, and Mandi Lindley dropped in a hit joined by a series of furious hits by Vann at the net. Burnet soared to a 13-3 lead before the bottom fell out. The lead evaporated on nine hitting errors as Gatesville, who evened the score at 22-22, threatened to steal the win. The 10th Burnet miscue handed the Lady Hornets the lead for the first time, 22-23. Gatesville, however, self-destructed with three consecutive hitting errors to hand back the lead and the victory to Burnet.

“Losing that lead was hard,” Grissom said. “The girls have a tendency to let up when they get ahead like that and they know it. I was thankful the girls pulled out game two because the match could have quickly changed if Gatesville would have won.” 

The Lady Hornets, who advanced to the area playoffs in 2007, went full throttle in the third set with the match on the line. However, the battle erupted into error-plagued play on both sides. Burnet’s Servise rifled in a few hits but was matched by strikes from Gatesville senior Kelsey Phillips. The two squads struggled to a 9-9 tie. A thunderous Servise kill moved the Lady Dawgs ahead, 15-11, but both teams still remained error-prone. Two strikes by Hornet Shelby Watson sparked a rally, 18-16, but it was quickly squelched with a kill and a strong tap-back by senior Vann, 20-16. A frantic finish that included a slam by Servise and a Vaughan hit that draped over the net for a point gave Burnet a 24-21 advantage. A misfire on a Gatesville serve ended the match.

Burnet advances to the Region 1 quarterfinal scheduled Nov. 10-11 to face the winner of the Wimberley-Decatur area playoff set today through Saturday. 

“We now have to go and start thinking about our next match,” Grissom said. “That’s the thing about playoffs. It doesn’t give you much time to enjoy the win. You have to keep moving forward.”