Lady Cats Volleyball Coach Justin Maness commented on the Lady Cats 3-1 loss at Lindale Tuesday (September 25) night. The loss gives the Lady Cats are 0-2 district mark after opening with two road matches. The Lady Cats, ranked #25 in the Texas Girls Coaches Association Poll, have a season mark now of 24-9.
Coach Maness said he saw a lot more effort from the Lady Cats against Lindale than he did in the game at Royse City last Friday (September 21). He said Lindale is a good team and he added he knew they would be tough to beat at home. Coach Maness said the Lady Cats followed the game plan fairly well. He said unforced errors down the stretch ended up leading to the Lady Cats defeat. Coach Maness expects district play to be interesting. He doesn’t think anyone will go through it undefeated. Coach Maness said the Lady Cats had already played a couple of the toughest district contests.
He is hoping for a repeat of last year for the Lady Cats. After opening district play 0-2, the Lady Cats won eleven matches in a row. The Lady Cats ended up in a tie for first place with Texas High and then won a match over the Lady Tigers to get the district’s #1 seed and the district championship. Coach Maness said he was working to keep the Lady Cats thinking positively.
Autumn Tanton had a strong game for the Lady Cats at Lindale. She had a team high 19 kills. Coach Maness said she really had high energy as the match progressed. He said he needs more of that from all his players on the court. Coach Maness said if all members of the team do that, the Lady Cats will be hard to beat. The Lady Cats have their district home opener Friday. Greenville comes to Wildcat Gym for a match that starts at 5 p.m. He is hoping for a good crowd. Coach Maness said he wants to end up the first half with a 3-2 record. Royse City and Lindale will have to visit Wildcat Gym during the district’s second half of the schedule.
Here are the stats from the Lindale match Tuesday night. Autumn Tanton had 19 kills and that led the Lady Cats. Sydney Washburn, Lexi Whisenhunt and Madison Vickery all had five kills. Abbi Baier had 4 and Sadie Washburn 3. In assists, Whisenhunt had 27 and Sadie Stroud had 2. In digs, Stroud had a team high 24. Maddie Millsap and Whisenhunt had 13 each. Sadie Washburn and Tanton had 7 apiece. Baier and Taylor McElfresh had 4 digs each. In block assists, Sadie Washburn had 2 and Tanton 1.