Sandiettes Take Down Lady Tigers, 3-1

By Will Johnson

Messenger Reporter

GRAPELAND – It’s hard to believe, but the volleyball season is quickly nearing the midway point and several teams are beginning to make their case as to why they should be included in the playoffs, which begin in a little over a month.

While there are still a lot of matches left to play, one of those teams making an early statement for inclusion in postseason play is the Grapeland Sandiettes and they bolstered their case on Tuesday night with a four set win at home over the Latexo Tigers. 

The match was a back and forth affair and could have easily gone the other way had one or two pla
ys been made differently. After the Sandiettes took the opening set, the Latexo fans who made the short trek up U.S. Hwy. 287 got behind their team and helped boost them to a 25-22 win in set number two.

In set three, the Sandiettes and Lady Tigers swapped leads with other up until the score was knotted at 12. At that point, Grapeland went on a 9-3 run to take a lead they wouldn’t relinquish as they captured the set by a score of 25-17.

After dropping the crucial third set, the Lady Tigers knew they had their work cut out for them in the fourth. Latexo jumped out to a four point lead in the early stages of the game and led by a score of 9-5.

The Sandiettes began to chip away at the point differential and eventually moved ahead by a score of 10-9. The Lady Tigers tied the score at 11 – but from there until the end of the game – neither team was able to separate themselves from the other.

Latexo moved back ahead at 15-14 and again at 18-17, but the Sandiettes battled back to tie things up at 20 and moved in front 22-20. The Lady Tigers kept their composure, however, and made some key blocks to move back in front at 23-22, with a chance to serve out the set.

Just as the visiting Latexo fans helped the Lady Tigers win the second set, the hometown Grapeland fans helped give the Sandiettes an extra little push in the fourth and final set. Grapeland tied the score at 23 and regained the lead at 24.

Latexo wasn’t going away without a fight and tied things up once again at 24 all. That was as close as they would come, however, as the Sandiettes hung on to win the fourth set, 26-24, as well as the match by a score of 3-1.

Following the match, Grapeland Coach Megan Simison said the win helped keep the Sandiettes in no worse than third place in District 22-2A. “On Monday when the rankings came out, we were in third behind Centerville and Iola. Depending on what happens tonight, we could still be in third place or even tied for second. Centerville and Iola both came into tonight with 3-0 records. I don’t know how they did yet, so we’ll just have to see,” she said.

In regard to the Sandiettes’ performance against the Lady Tigers, Coach Simison remarked, “They did really well. I haven’t seen them hustle this much in a long time. Keaundra Harris had an excellent game. I haven’t seen her hit that well all season. Our serves and our passing were not that great tonight, but we hit well enough that it helped carry us through.”

The Sandiettes traveled to Normangee on Friday for a match against the Lady Panthers. As of press time, the score for that match was unavailable.

Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].