UIL 1A State Championship Update

Michael DeLeon November 28, 2020 @ 10:01 AM

Neches Seniors have been there before. Back to back State Championships are something that is almost never heard of in the sport of Volleyball. It is one of the most difficult sports to have consistency in. Each one of you reading this knows this about our beloved sport. So many adjustments are required on each attempt to deliver the ball exactly where you want it to go. Because it is a rebound sport, there is a lot less control of the ball. You are always making adjustments based on the previous contact from someone else. That is where experience comes in to play. Once you have done it so many times, it becomes habit. An Involuntary Movement similar to breathing. You don’t think about breathing…your body just does it to stay alive. This is one thing that helped Neches in this run to state this year. They have been there before. They needed one more day to just do what they normally do at State. Play and win a title.   Neches vs Blum for the State Championship. Neches came in to the championship match with a record of 29-4 overall record. They made easy work of D’Hanis High School in the Semi-finals (25-13, 25-6, 25-11) to reach the championship match. Blum also had a great season with an overall record of 31-5. Blum had a little tougher match with Sterling City but still swept them (25-22, 25-22, 25-18) to reach the finals. Now it would come down to who wanted it more in order to call themselves Texas State Champs.   The super young team of Blum High School would keep it close for the first two sets barely losing by three points in both. The young duo of Sophomore Emma Jones and Freshman Addison Willingham were the only two to score at a good enough clip to pave the way for the Blum offensive attack. Emma finished with 9 kills on 37 total attempts. Addison had 10 kills on 22 total attempts. Ruby Rumohr tried to move the ball around to multiple hitters throughout the night and finished with 20 total assists. It was good enough offense to stay in the match but they needed to find some more firepower to match the blocking of Neches. Be on the lookout for this team next year as they return three studs who will be hungry for revenge.   Neches Seniors Lexi Rogers and Kacie Kimbrough were magnificent. Kacie ended the night with 15 kills on 27 total attempts while Lexi also had 15 kills on 31 swings. Feeding these two great hitters was setter Emily Hill who finished with 40 assists on the night. Reagan Hill also helped the win with 3 big blocks. Neches was able to win the championship in straight sets 25-20, 25-19, 25-12 bringing their school its third STRAIGHT Texas State Championship.   The following players received All Tournament honors from UIL at the State Tournament. 1A - 2020-2021 <ul> <li>Emily Hill - Senior - Neches</li> <li>Reagan Hill - Senior - Neches</li> <li>Kacie Kimbrough - Senior - Neches</li> <li>Kayden Arrington - Freshman - Blum</li> <li>Addison Willingham - Freshman - Blum</li> </ul> Championship Match Most Valuable Player <ul> <li>Lexie Rogers - Senior - Neches</li> </ul> We would like to congratulate Neches on their amazing season and way to cap it off with their Three-Peat State Championship!!! Enjoy it ladies.   We will be publishing more articles weekly to give recognition to those teams and athletes who are playing great in their matches. Stay tuned for more articles on your favorite athletes. If you have anyone that you think deserves to be recognized as a player of the week, feel free to send me a message with their information. Or if you have anyone that you think have what it takes to be added to our database, please shoot me an email with some info at nov8vb@yahoo.com. As always, thanks for following our publication.