The Rockdale Lady Tigers were expected to play for third place in the 13-team tournament they hosted in the RHS and RJH gyms this past week Aug. 23-25, but a typo in the bracket kept the Rock-dale High School volleyball team off the court.
According to Jennifer Keen, head volleyball coach, a typo on the bracket meant that Somerville, a team that should have been out of the tournament, was warming up to play against Thorndale.
“I can’t even begin to describe to you the feeling I have had all weekend realizing that I took a medal away from my team, my seniors, my girls, because of an error in the bracket,” Keen said. “I looked at that bracket, I don’t know how many times, I had it proofread by another coach, and we just never caught it. In five years, this has not ever happened, and it isn’t a feeling I ever want to have again. I apologized to the girls, and I now apologize to the parents and the fans.” The Lady Tigers won five games in their own tournament and lost one, according to Keen.
On Thursday, Rockdale came out strong, winning all four of their matches, beating Somerville 25-14, 25-16, Manor New Tech 25-9, 25-9, Holland 25-20, 25-15, and Florence 25-6, 25-17.
“We had great chemistry on Thursday,” said Keen.
On Saturday, the Lady Tigers moved into the gold bracket as first in their pool, and beat Taylor in a tiebreaker.
In the first set, Keen said nothing was getting by them and the entire team was effective in their 25-15 victory of that set. However, they lost the second set 24-26. “One thing we’ll have to fix by district is our consistency,” said Keen. “We play so well, but our play varies from match to match.”
Keen said the tiebreaker loss in the second set was a result of not passing well, and utilizing their hitters. In the third and final set of the match, the Tigers would beat the Lady Ducks, 25-18, even with their passing not as good as it could have been, according to Keen.
In Rockdale’s final match of the tournament, they defeated 6A Killeen-Shoemaker.
Keen said the Lady Tigers looked much better in their first set against the Wolves, winning 25-18. Keen said Shoemaker couldn’t figure out how to contain Kaylee Criswell, so her teammates kept feeding her the ball at the net. Their passing declined after the first set, according to Keen. They lost the second set 23-25 and fell in final and deciding set, 21-25.
“Both matches were close,” said Keen. “They were also very fun to watch.”
“I hate that this is how our tournament ended, but tournament season is now over for my varsity girls, and this is the best tournament season we have had since I have been here...these girls are something special,” she said.
The Lady Tigers have one last non-district game on Friday, Aug. 31, against the Caldwell Lady Hornets in Rockdale. Varsity play begins at 4p.m., with both junior varsity games being played afterwards. District play will start a week later on Friday, Sept. 7 at home against the Franklin Lady Lions with varsity starting at 4:30p.m.
Final tournament results were Gold bracket winners – 1. Shoemaker, 2. Gateway, 3. Thorndale and Silver bracket finishers 1. Meridian, 2. Travis, 3. Central Texas Christian.
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