BY TJ WILLIAMS
ARLINGTON –
Head Coach Josh McKinney led his Class 5A defending state champion Colleyville Heritage Panthers on to the court on Tuesday night at the beautiful Arlington ISD Athletics Center, for their opening playoff match of 2023 – a bi-district matchup with Midlothian Heritage.
The Panthers entered the match with a 35-10 overall mark, the second seed out of District 7-5A, while Rebecca Anderson’s Jaguars (26-18) were the number three seed out of 8-5A.
But while the Panthers were defending state champs, McKinney reminded followers of one major factor.
“This is really a brand new team (compared to last year’s state title team),” McKinney stated. “For most of this team this was their first playoff match except for handful of players from last season. We have a freshman setter (Claire Bundy), sophomore and freshman hitters (sophomores: Audrey Popp, Zara Mujtaba) and they have nerves. Nerves are normal and it just means you care.”
The nerves popped up right away: the Panthers made four unforced errors early in the first set and found themselves facing a quick 7-2 deficit. The Panthers eventually won the match with a sweep (14, 11, 17) and advanced to Thursday’s area round matchup where they will face Azle.
But back to the match, where his team trailed Midlothian’s Jaguars 7-2 in the first set.
“At that point, I called a time out and I told the girls to take a deep breath,” McKinney revealed. “They did, and I told them to go out and play their game.” And boy, did they.
Soon after, junior Georgia Smith served up the first of Colleyville’s six match aces and that tied the set at 8-8. The two teams went toe-to-toe until Midlothian held a 13-11 lead. Enter 6-foot-3 BYU-commit Suli Davis with a block and a kill to change the momentum. Soon, it was the Jaguars making unforced errors.
That momentum gave the Panthers their first lead at 14-13 that ignited a 9-2 run for McKinney’s crew. Soon, the lead was 21-14 after Maddie Bird fired an ace past the Jaguars. They closed out the set at 25-14.
The Panthers opened up Set 2 by blasting out to a 16-5 lead (riding the tails of an 11-1 scoring run) and cruised to a 25-11 victory. The Panthers opened Set 3 on another tear, rolling out to an 11-3 advantage. Anderson’s squad, fighting to keep their season alive, responded with short scoring spurts, but it was too little too late. The Panthers wrapped up the match with a 25-17 victory to complete the sweep and move on to the area round.
“I’m proud of the girls,” McKinney concluded. “They have their own personality. The vibe of this team was good coming into tonight. I felt they were prepared, and overall they came out and played well.
Davis tied Bird for the team lead in kills with nine; Davis added three solo blocks and numerous assists. Bird served up two aces while Addison Arnold made two solo blocks as well.
Grace Sweeney led Midlothian with nine kills and added two block-assists and two aces. Emma Bartosh had four kills while Reagan Miller tallied two solo blocks and two block-assists.
