By Brian Gosset
In jeopardy of its first loss in nearly 2 years, Byron Nelson stormed back after a 0-2 deficit to complete the reverse sweep at Flower Mound 20-25, 21-25, 25-20, 26-24, 15-13 on Tuesday night. It was the season opener for Byron while Flower Mound began the season against Allen on Monday. The nation’s top ranked player, 2027 setter Sophee Peterson (Texas A&M commit) recorded her first career 60-assist game with a career-best 65 to go along with a double-double (20 digs, 4 aces). Sophomore outside Sasha Lanis poured in 32 kills on 82 attempts (0.280 hitting percentage). Lanis had 34 kills in 54 sets last season in limited action as a freshman. KC Chinnis and Mallory McMahon added 13 and 10 kills, respectively. Cashlyn Williamson had a team-high 29 digs followed by Peterson (20), Savannah Sterna (15), Lanis (13) and Addison Hartnet (12). The Bobcats (1-0) extended their winning streak to 79 games with their last loss coming on Aug. 16, 2024 against Highland Park in Hawaii. Byron enters the season with back-to-back state championships (6A D2 in 2024; 6A D1 in 2025) and went 42-0 last fall following a sweep over Pearland Dawson in the final. With another national championship by MaxPreps, the Bobcats are looking for a 3-peat, which would be the first in the largest classification since Hebron from 2015 to 2017. HC Brianne Groth will turn to a pair of new hitters on the outside with Kylie Kleckner and AJ Seay now in college. With her performance on Tuesday night, Lanis appears to be one of those options. The victory over Flower Mound also marks the 5th straight year that Byron opens the season in the win column.
