Monday night marked the end of the Lady Tiger volleyball season as they fell in three sets to Fairfield, the Texas Girls Coaches Association’s eighth-ranked team in Class 3A, 18-25, 16-25, 19-25.
“Volleyball is definitely a game of runs and we just didn’t do a great job of stopping their runs tonight,” Rockdale High School head volleyball coach Kelsey Hudson said. “When you get down, you have to find a way to get through it and we just didn’t do as good of a job as we needed to.”
“But I’ll tell you that this is a young team and I’m just so proud of the way they fought,” she said. “They never gave up and that’s the number one thing, just don’t ever give up, leave it all on the court and I think we did that.”
The Blue-and-Gold end their season with a record of 20-18 and a fourth place finish in District 19-3A.
They started off the season as a clear contender for the district championship, especially after coming off a playoff appearance with a young team in 2020.
However, four games into their 12-game district campaign, four-year starter Haven Jimenez had a season-ending ACL injury that forced Hudson and the Lady Tigers to adapt to their new reality.
“I’m just so stinking proud of them, a lot of our girls are playing completely different positions after Haven went out,” Hudson said. “Julie (Bartsch) had to play some back row, Hailey (Webb) stepped up, for them being such a young team they did a great job.”
“We always have our highs and lows as a young team, but I’m so so proud,” she said. “They worked so hard and they earned it.”
Rockdale loses Jimenez and Brande Breithaupt, a two-year starter, to graduation this May but has the rest of their squad returning in the fall of 2022, including three-year starters Emma Whitsel, Yolianna Castillo and Bartsch, as well as their classmates Saige Robertson and Alyzza Davilla.
Sophomores Webb and Halle Jimenez will also be back for their junior season along with freshmen Elizabeth Perry. “We’re going to be contenders,” Hudson said. “We just have to get in the gym and work.”
“There are high expectations for this group next year,”
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