Lady Dragons’ work far from finished

There will be an acknowledgement. But there won’t be a celebration. With Carroll’s volleyball program, clinching a playoff berth is just part of doing business.

The Lady Dragons (36-3, 8-0 in District 7-6A) clinched a playoff berth after dispatching Richland this past Friday. There is more at stake for this program. The Lady Dragons want to win a district championship – something they didn’t do in 2014. They also want to return to the state tournament. They last went in 2013. Last year’s team advanced to the Region I semifinals.

“We’re pretty much businesslike in our approach,” head coach Ryan Mitchell said. “We’re supposed to be there. It’s not something that’s on our goal chart. But winning a district championship is. Those are things we take pride in accomplishing.”

But the margin is pretty thin. Carroll still owns a one-game lead over Coppell before the Cowgirls played at Colleyville Heritage on Tuesday. Carroll played at Haltom on Tuesday before it plays host to Euless Trinity on Friday. If everything holds to form, Carroll and Coppell would play each other on Oct. 27 at Carroll with an outright or shared district championship at stake.

In the meantime, matches like the one against Richland and the ones this week can still be used as a means to make sure the execution of the offense and the placement of the defense is where it needs to be.

“These matches are sets where everybody is playing,” Mitchell said. “This week allowed us to run more lineups and get everybody in the game. We played some kids that we normally don’t play. There are some players who still need some court experience.”

Speeding things up

Mitchell has been trying to encourage his offense to quicken the pace. In fact, he’s requiring it.

There’s a reason for that. The faster you play, the more difficult it is for the other team to stay with that pace and react to it. Mitchell defines the pace to be from the time the ball leaves the setter’s hand to when it leaves the attacker’s hand. That can force the opponent to do one of two things: react slowly or move too fast and make mistakes.

“You never want to play with such reckless abandon that you do something really careless,” Mitchell said. “But when you have the type of athleticism that we have, we feel like we can do it. We have two setters in Lisie Kit and Sheridan Webb who have the ability to do that.”

Notable

While a lot of players had good weeks, Mitchell pointed out the strong play of right side hitter Naomi King … Junior outside hitter Rachel Meyne, who had missed some time with a sprained ankle, returned last week and was featured in certain situations, Mitchell said … Senior middle blocker Elizabeth Augustini is also dealing with an ankle injury and was not expected to play this week. Carroll already has enough depth to where it can afford not to play her.

This story was originally published October 12, 2015 at 2:34 PM with the headline "Lady Dragons’ work far from finished."