History making victory
Tears of joy welled in the eyes of Thorndale volleyball players after a battle of wills that put the Lady Bulldogs on top of a five set victory over the Burton Lady Panthers in last Saturday’s 2A Regional Final match.
“To be honest, I’m still in awe of my girls and the way they fought the entire game,” said Angelene Raines, Thorndale High School head volleyball coach. “I feel very blessed to be the first volleyball team in our school’s history to make it to the state tournament.”
Thorndale will play Lindsay 5 p.m., Wednesday at the Curtis Curwell Center in Garland in a state semifinal match.
“The girls are really excited as well,” Raines said. “To see their faces with tears of joy and feeling pure happiness was definitely the icing on top of the cake.”
Last week, the Lady Bulldogs defeated the Burton Lady Panthers 25-21, 17-25, 25-20, 18-25, 16-14 in a tiebreaker at Brenham High School.
“At no point, did we ever give up even when there was a seven point spread in game five,” she said. “They just never stopped. Another huge factor in our win was one of our seniors, Elise Biar, she had a career high 16 kills and was a huge leader on and off the court. Her energy and intensity was contagious.”
Thorndale was led by all-around play from Landri Leschber, who had 18 kills, 13 digs, and 25 assists. Biar had 16 kills in the tiebreaker win against the Lady Panthers. Landry Laywell also helped Thorndale’s offense with 17 assists that fed the attacks of Leschber, Biar and Maddie Smith, who had 13 kills.
Defensively, the state-qualifiers were boosted by Maddie Flores, who had 11 digs.
THS 3, BHS 2 Kills: Leschber 18, Biar 16, M. Smith 13, Laywell 3, Rainey Buchanan 3, Ashley Pesl 3, Hannah Laurence 1. Aces: Leschber 5, Pesl 1, Laurence 1. Digs: Leschber 13, Flores 11, Allison Albert 7, Pesl 5, M. Smith 5, Lay-well 2, Biar 1 Blocks: Biar 7, Laurence 6, Buchanan 3, Pesl 3, Leschber 3, M. Smith 2, J. Smith 1.
Regional semifinal –
On Friday the Lady Bulldogs breezed past Freer in three sets in the regional semifinal match at Brenham High School.
Thorndale won 25-11, 25-13, 25-12.
“Our mentality has been one game at a time and they played with confidence and very few nerves,” Raines said, about the semifinal. “It did help that they only single blocked which gave our hitters a lot of room to work. Our back row and setting were on point the whole time. It all came together in that game.”
THS 3, FHS 0 Kills: Leschber 21, M. Smith 14, Lay-well 9, Laurence 5, J. Smith 2, Aces: Pesl 2, M. Smith 1, Leschber 1, Albert 1. Digs: M. Smith 9, Albert 7, Flores 6, Pesl 4, Leschber 4, Laurence 2, Buchanan 1. Blocks: Laurence 5, M. Smith 5, Leschber 3, J. Smith 1,
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