State Tournament Top Performers – Day 3

The University Interscholastic League (UIL) State Tournament completed three full days of action on Friday, the day in which the final two classes first entered the court at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland. The day the second state champions of the season in the state of Texas crowned as Beckville topped the 2A division in great fashion. Also on Friday, Lucas Lovejoy and Grapevine advanced to the State Tournament match in the class 5A while Northside Brandeis and Keller remain as title contenders on division 6A. Here’s a summary of what happened in all five matches of the day and our way to recognize the players who stood out in the third day of the tournament.   2A Beckville 3-0 Thrall (26-24, 25-23, 25-15) Beckville played their cards well to secure their second state title, making of its offense (47-31 in kills) to overcome a solid Thrall team in the deciding moments of the match. The newly-crowned champions got the most of their ‘Big Three’ with senior middle blocker Kinsley Rivers tallying 14 kills, 21 digs and one block, junior outside hitter Avery Morris producing 14 kills, one ace and 18 digs and senior outside hitter Amber Harris filling the stats sheet with ten kills, two aces, two blocks and 13 digs. Junior setter Sophie Elliot also had a solid performance with 41 assists, three aces and 12 digs. Sophomore Melaina Grissom (13 kills, one ace, 19 digs) and junior Mia Mollenberg (ten kills, four blocks) reached double digits for Thrall.   5A Lucas Lovejoy 3-0 Manvel (25-14, 25-15, 25-11) Defending champions Lucas Lovejoy gave Manvel no chance, defeating the Pearland-area team in straight sets in the semifinal and not allowing their rivals to score more than 15 points in any set. Lovejoy nearly doubled Manvel’s offensive production (43-22 in kills) thanks to the team’s impressive side out rate of 70.7%. That was due to the great work of setter senior [player_tooltip player_id="87389" first="Averi" last="Carlson"], who produced 24 assists, besides three kills and six digs. The most productive offensive players for the lady Leopards were senior middle blocker [player_tooltip player_id="99506" first="Rosemary" last="Archer"] (10 kills, nine digs, one block) and junior middle blocker [player_tooltip player_id="153291" first="Hannah" last="Gonzalez"] (11 kills, five blocks). Junior outside hitter [player_tooltip player_id="87551" first="Devyn" last="Lewis"] was Manvel’s top performer with eight kills, three digs, two blocks and one ace.   Grapevine 3-2 Comal Canyon (18-25, 20-25, 25-20, 25-18, 15-10) Red-hot Grapevine staged a fantastic comeback in arguably the most exciting match of this year’s State Tournament so far with a five-set victory over Canyon. The Mustangs relied on their offense (67-60 in kills) to make up for deficits in aces (4-9) and blocking (4-10) and take the match. Outside hitter [player_tooltip player_id="119921" first="Janet" last="deMarrais"] was the star of the night with 29 kills, 20 digs, two aces and two blocks while fellow senior Alea Lastinger dominated the net with 17 kills and two blocks. Senior outside hitter Kyla Malone had 23 kills and 19 digs for Canyon while sophomore setter [player_tooltip player_id="142200" first="Megan" last="Hawkins"] had a whopping 52 assists to go with 17 digs.   6A Northside Brandeis 3-1 Bridgeland (25-18, 25-21, 19-25, 25-21) Brandeis’ 24th-straight win has placed the Broncos in the State Tournament match. The team from San Antonio was better than Houston’s Bridgeland in every area of the game, leading in kills (57-45), aces (8-4), blocks (7-6) and digs (91-84). Their outside hitter duo of [player_tooltip player_id="99492" first="Emma" last="Halstead"] and [player_tooltip player_id="87481" first="Jalyn" last="Gibson"] worked to perfection with the junior delivering 22 kills, 15 digs, two blocks and one ace and the senior producing 18 kills, 22 digs, one block and one ace. The two were fed by senior setter [player_tooltip player_id="87499" first="Carlee" last="Pharris"], who had 47 assists to go with 19 digs. Senior outside hitter [player_tooltip player_id="99515" first="Mallorie" last="Garner"] kept Bridgeland in the game for as long as she could with a performance of 20 kills, seven digs, one ace and one block. Fellow senior Karrington Keys was also strong at the net with five blocks.   Keller 3-2 Fort Bend Ridge Point (22-25, 26-24, 25-11, 24-26, 15-11) Keller was pushed to five sets, but eventually came out on top of Ridge Point to claim the second spot in the State Championship match in the division with its superior offense (67-51 kills). The entertaining, high-scoring match saw multiple players in each team reach double digits. On Keller’s side, those were senior outside hitter [player_tooltip player_id="151749" first="Melanie" last="McGann"] (24 kills, four blocks), junior middle blocker [player_tooltip player_id="141125" first="Leah" last="Ford"] (15 kills, three aces, one block), sophomore outside hitter Reagan Sharp (14 kills) and senior middle blocker Jenna Clifford (ten kills, four blocks). On Ridge Point, junior outside hitter [player_tooltip player_id="87531" first="Sydney" last="Jordan"] had 14 kills and one ace, freshman right sider Kennedi Rogers had ten kills and one block and senior middle blocker [player_tooltip player_id="87480" first="Alexis" last="Roberson"] had ten kills and five blocks. The two setters also did great with Keller’s junior [player_tooltip player_id="87577" first="Taylor" last="Polivka"] dishing out 52 assists and Ridge Point’s senior Nina Moorer filling the stat sheet with 30 assists, 20 digs and nine kills.