Colleyville Heritage clinches spot in regional tourney and more from Fort Worth-area volleyball
Colleyville Heritage senior Morgan Howard said it best, “It’s hard to beat a team three time.”
Heritage entered Tuesday night’s game with Argyle, having beaten its District 7-5A mates twice already, 3-2 and 3-1, this season. But Argyle was coming in as one of the hottest teams in the state.
After finishing with the No. 4 seed, the Eagles upset Midlothian and Aledo in four sets.
On Tuesday, Argyle came out fighting once again.
But trailing two games to one in the match, the Heritage Panthers rallied back to take the fourth set and then rolled in the fifth to pick up the 24-26, 25-14, 21-15, 25-21, 15-7 in a Class 5A Region 1 quarterfinal at Keller Central.
“I think it was very helpful it was Argyle because we kind of knew their tendencies. But it’s hard to beat a team three times,” Howard said. “I feel we prepared very well in practice this week leading up to the game.”
The Panthers (39-7) are headed to the Region 1 tournament later this week in Lubbock.
It’s their second straight appearance and fourth in six years.
Colleyville will face Lubbock Cooper in the regional semifinals at 6 p.m. on Friday at Lubbock-Cooper HS. Cooper knocked off Amarillo in five sets on Tuesday.
Argyle (32-13), leading 2-1, cut Colleyville’s lead in half and pulled within 19-16 in the fourth set. Reagan Engler hit off the slide to keep the Panthers in front by two and Ella Busey made it 23-20 with a kill off the Argyle block.
In the fifth set, the Panthers opened with a 4-0 lead with an ace from Suli Davis, a Maddie Bird kill off the block and an Argyle error. Jordyn Moore’s kill put Argyle within two at 5-3 by points from Engler and Bird made it 8-3 and led the Eagles to a timeout.
Davis sent down a big birthday shot and Argyle had to call its final timeout while trailing 12-6. Davis finished with 19 kills and four aces for the Panthers. Busey and Engler added 16 and 11 kills, and Morgan Howard had 46 assists. Ava Ash put in 31 digs and Davis added 29.
“I’m so excited. I love this team and love these girls,” Howard said. “I am excited that this wasn’t my last game of the season.”
“We knew we could win. The energy from the crowd and from our bench even,” Engler added. “It was our game and we knew it wasn’t going to be our last high school game. We wanted to win and we just took over.”
Howard set up Davis in the first set and the Panthers led 8-5. The lead grew to 14-8, but Argyle scored four in a row highlighted by a Katherine Holtman block. Busey’s kill from back row, a block combo by Engler and Howard and another big kill by Davis put the Panthers ahead 23-18.
But errors derailed Colleyville and Argyle finished with a 8-1 run. The Eagles trailed 24-21, but scored the final five points to steal the set.
Colleyville grabbed the momentum in the second set as the Panthers quickly led 3-0, 14-7 and 19-10. Engler took a Howard assist down the middle to tie the match. Busey tied the third set at 13, but an Argyle block gave the Eagles an 18-16 lead. Olivia Sanchez’ kill gave Argyle a 21-20 lead and the Panthers had to call a timeout trailing 22-20. Camryn Heiser scored to reach set point for the Eagles and Argyle closed it out to grab a 2-1 lead.
“Coach Josh McKinney compared it to our game in the first round. We went to five sets then and it was the exact same thing,” Engler said. “He told us it’s time to push, this is how champions play. It’s time to persevere and it’s time to finish the game.”
Top Performers
Ava Ash, Colleyville Heritage: 31 digs vs Argyle
Morgan Howard, Colleyville Heritage: 46 assists vs Argyle
Suli Davis, Colleyville Heritage: 19 kills, 29 digs, 4 aces vs Argyle
Caroline Kahle, Birdville: 15 kills, 0.520 hitting, 8 digs vs Grapevine
Lyric Steward, Birdville: 10 kills, 0.500 hitting vs Grapevine
Abbi Parr, Birdville: 32 assists, 9 digs vs Grapevine
Madi Parrish, Boswell: 26 kills, 0.322 hitting, 17 digs vs Byron Nelson
Stephanie Gutierrez, Boswell: 17 kills, 0.371 hitting, 5 blocks vs Byron Nelson
Alena Lopez, Boswell: 34 digs vs Byron Nelson
Brianna Russell, Boswell: 40 assists, 13 digs vs Byron Nelson
Shelby Martin, Grandview: 19 kills vs Cameron Yoe
Kenzi Williamson, Grandview: 32 assists vs Cameron Yoe
Scores
Birdville 3, Grapevine 0
Boswell 3, Byron Nelson 0
Colleyville Heritage 3, Argyle 2
Decatur 3, Glen Rose 0 (Monday)
Grace Prep 3, Lake Country 0 (Saturday)
Grandview 3, Cameron Yoe 1
Holliday 3, Peaster 2
Keller 3, Carroll 2
Rains 3, Boyd 0
Stephenville 3, Springtown 0 (Monday)
This story was originally published November 8, 2022 at 10:46 PM.
