Rockdale’s Lady Tigers dropped just one game in 10 to take home the Rock-dale High School Volleyball Tournament Championship. Rockdale last won the tournament in 2014.
The Lady Tigers came into the tournament seeded first and are in the middle of a seven-game winning streak.
The 11-10 squad beat out Austin-McCallum on Tuesday and will travel to Caldwell for a match with the Lady Hornets at 6 p.m. on Friday. CHS is ranked fifth by the Texas Girls Coaches Association in Class 4A and boasts a 22-3 record.
“I’m very proud of our girls,” said Kelsey Hudson, RHS head volleyball coach about the weekend RHS tournament victory. “I thought we fought hard even though we were down by a lot. But we never lost our confidence.”
On Saturday afternoon, the Lady Tigers outscored Class 6A Killeen-Shoemaker 17-4 to win the match 25-21, 25-20 become tournament champions. The Lady Tigers took advantage of a Lady Wolves team that struggled at the net.
Haven Jimenez, Anna Harmon and Andrea Salazar were threats at the net with six kills apiece. Emily Depine and Julie Bartsch both had five. Yoli Castillo was all over the court
“I think we’ve definitely become better at communicating with each other,” Hudson said. “Our leadership has also become much better at guiding the younger players and that’s been important.”
On their way to the championship match on Saturday, the Lady Tigers defeated Class 4A Taylor in match that came down to a third set tiebreaker with RHS winning 14-25, 25-9, 15-10.
Harmon led with eight kills, Castillo had 21 assists and Miller had nine digs.
RHS took down Austin-Travis 25-8, 25-19 with all around good play. Jimenez and Bartsch both had five kills and Castillo had 17 assists. Averie Hobbs and Miller led on the ground with 13 and 10 digs respectively.
On Thursday, Rock-dale defeated Travis 25-9, 25-18. Jimenez had nine kills and Harmon had eight. Castillo had 24 assists and Miller had 20 digs.
Against Holland, the Lady Tigers won 25-11, 25-19. Harmon had seven kills, Castillo had 20 assists and Miller and Emma Whitsel both had five digs. Rock-dale also defeated Milam County neighbor Buckholts 25-6, 25-8. Harmon had five kills, Castillo had 14 assists and Miller had 15 digs.
GATEWAY—On Tuesday, Aug. 20, Rockdale came out on top defeating Georgetown-Gateway 25-17, 28-26, 21-25, 25-23 in a match where five Lady Tigers had eight or more kills. Depine led with nine kills. Bartsch, Salazar, Harmon and Jimenez each had eight. Castillo had 32 assists and Miller had 26 digs.
JUNIOR VARSITY—
The RHS junior varsity also played at their home tourney bouncing back with two wins on Saturday over Holland and Buckholts after losing both of their matches on Saturday to Mumford and consolation champion Somerville.
“I’m really proud of how our junior varsity did,” Hudson said. “And not to mention our second JV that got second in their tournament last week.
“It makes me feel like we have a bright future ahead.”
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