BY BRIAN GOSSET
X – @Gosset41
COLLEYVILLE – In a regular playoff volleyball setting, Plano West and Flower Mound wouldn’t have met until the third round at the earliest. However, with the new UIL postseason format, the two powerhouses duked it out in the first round. This season, there is a divisional split in D1 and D2 based on enrollment. Plano West has the third largest enrollment in the state, but the other two – Plano East and Allen are in the same district. So the Wolves, who went 15-1 for a district championship in 6-6A, was the #1 seed in the D2 bracket.
Hebron and Flower Mound finished in the Top 2 in the 5-6A standings – both in the D2 bracket.
Flower Mound even played for a co-district championship in the regular season finale.
So pitting the two to open the playoffs was a bit unfair as one state contender would be one and done. Unfortunately on Tuesday night at Colleyville Heritage High School, Flower Mound drew the short straw as Plano West won 25-22, 20-25, 25-11, 25-22. The Wolves, #23 in the TGCA Top 25 state rankings, will advance to the 6A D2 area round to play Arlington, which eliminated Richardson Berkner on Tuesday night.
“Previously, if we win district and they’re second, we wouldn’t see a state ranked team like Flower Mound, and Flower Mound is always so good especially against us – it’s been a nice rivalry,” Plano West coach Cooper Phillips said. “It is what it is. I think the first round hurts you the most. After that I think it evens out. But the first round matchup in the D1 D2 spilt is kind of crazy and because we’re the third largest school in the state and we go small school. It’s just kind of absurd when things happen like that.”
Plano West (26-7) trailed early in the opening set, but managed to pull back into the game with kills from Kaitlyn Brewer and Aajayah Zeno. Then the two teams went back and forth the rest of the way. Freshman middle Gracie White had a nice showing and a kill in the middle gave the Wolves a 9-8 lead.
Audrey Jackson, who is committed to beach volleyball at Texas, fueled the Jaguars to the next three points and an 11-9 edge. But Plano West would score seven of the next nine as Zeno produced back to back kills. The lead grew to 17-13 off a kill by Reese Poerner.
“This was pretty insane for us,” said Poerner, who’s committed to Pepperdine. “We started a little rocky, but our blocking and defense picked up. That’s the stuff we’ve been working on so hard in practice. It was cool to see it all come together.”
But the block became big for Flower Mound as it got points by both Liz Goodspped and Geli St. Laurent to pull within 20-19. Jackson’s kill kept it one at 22-21, but an ace made it set point and then Plano West won a long rally after 30 seconds thanks to great defense led by libero Katelyn Vo and outside Blaire Bowers.
Again Flower Mound started strong in the second set with a 4-1 lead.
The lead grew to 10-5 and then 14-7 capped by a kill from freshman Aleah Edmond. A kill from St. Laurent made it 15-7 that forced a timeout. Jackson got a kill through the block and the Jags had the largest lead at 20-12. An ace from Char Young and one final kill by Jackson gave Flower Mound the win that tied the match at one.
Even though the Wolves lost some momentum, it didn’t faze them in the third set.
Flower Mound tied the set at 4-4 on a block point from St. Laurent. But Plano West answered with an 11-0 run. Blocks from White and Jaida Gray extended it to 16-5. Overall after trailing 2-0, Plano West outscored Flower Mound 25-9 to take a 2-1 advantage.
The win in the third rolled into the fourth.
Plano West went up 14-8 on kills by Poerner and blocks by Zeno and Gray. A Goodspeed kill and Edmond block pulled the Jags within 18-14. Then it was 23-21 before the Wolves finished it off after a Flower Mound hitting error. Bowers, Poerner, Zeno, White and Gray played stellar and setter Sophia Wei and Vo were the floor generals.
“It’s good vibes all around. You know there’s always someone in the front line that’s going to kill the ball,” Poerner said.
