Lady Panthers play waiting game for seeding
UPDATE: Grapevine and Colleyville Heritage have advanced to the area round of the playoffs. The Lady Mustangs take on Burleson Centennial at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Saginaw High. The Lady Panthers face Plano at 7 p.m. Friday at Little Elm.
The Colleyville Heritage volleyball team could do nothing but wait on Tuesday.
With their regular season now complete, the Lady Panthers (20-22, 7-5 in District 7-6A) knew they were in the playoffs. They just didn’t know what seed. Euless Trinity was 6-5 going into its regular season finale against Haltom on Tuesday with a chance to tie the Lady Panthers for third place. The Lady Trojans had already wrapped up a playoff berth but needed to win in order to force a tie. Colleyville Heritage drew its final bye on Tuesday.
Had Trinity won, it wasn’t really clear how the two would resolve the issue. They could either flip or play for it on Friday. Colleyville Heritage had preliminarily set up a warm-up match against Argyle.
“I feel like that if we didn’t play it, it would be better for us because it would help us to have a different matchup,” Huston said. “We could just have a different idea of what to expect because we’re going to see somebody else in the playoffs.”
It definitely wasn’t the way Huston wanted the regular season to end. The Lady Panthers dropped their final two matches against Trinity and Carroll without winning a game. Concerns on defense surfaced.
“I think we let up on things to keep the ball off the floor,” Huston said. “We have to refocus this week on where our efforts are for the kids to see. We need to regroup. We weren’t terrible against Carroll. But we’ve started pretty slow in our matches. And we can’t do that. I’ve got some ideas on how to deal with that.”
Huston said the intensity has to return to the serve receive game. Coaches use that 1-3 scale to evaluate where their teams are. The closer to three a team is, the more efficient it plays on defense.
The goal is to get a drill to go from 2.25 to 2.5. If the team doesn’t attain that number, Huston will restart it.
“We have to fine-tune ourselves not only there but on our blocking,” Huston said. “We know where our weaknesses have been since we started on Aug. 3. We just have to keep going.”
Regardless of its finish, Colleyville Heritage was either going to face Mansfield, Midlothian or South Grand Prairie from 8-6A in Region I bi-district round.
A sense of urgency
The end of her career is coming. But the way senior outside hitter Allison Jackson has played since her return has been exemplary.
Jackson missed the first 28 matches for undisclosed reasons. But Huston has seen where Jackson has brought intensity and leadership to the program.
“She’s nervous about the season ending,” Huston said. “Her block is really good. Her hands are better. She gets in on anything. She’s not playing in college. You can tell how evident her passion is. Allison gives us a fire.”
Grapevine update
The Lady Mustangs (28-16, 11-0 in 6-5A) have already wrapped up the outright championship and had a chance to finish the district season undefeated. Grapevine played host to Fort Worth Poly on Tuesday. Of course, it would be the second consecutive undefeated district season and extend Grapevine’s district winning streak to 26 dating back to 2013. Grapevine is going to face the fourth place team in District 5-5A. That’s either going to be Wichita Falls, White Settlement Brewer or Saginaw Chisholm Trail.
This story was originally published October 26, 2015 at 3:20 PM with the headline "Lady Panthers play waiting game for seeding."