UIL 3A State Championship – Bushland High School
Gunter vs Bushland for the State Championship. Gunter HS came in to the championship match with a 38-7 overall record and an unblemished 14-0 district record. The 3A defending State Champion Bushland HS also had another great season with an…
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Continue ReadingGunter vs Bushland for the State Championship. Gunter HS came in to the championship match with a 38-7 overall record and an unblemished 14-0 district record. The 3A defending State Champion Bushland HS also had another great season with an overall record of 33-5. Bushland had to beat a great Holliday HS team to reach the finals. Gunter beat a tough Boyd team to advance to the finals.
This was a rematch from the Semi’s from last season. Both teams know each other well and the crowd was in for a fun one. We were in attendance to watch the match in person and it was intense as both teams battled back and forth. Gunter had some serious firepower along their front line and brought their raucous crowd to a fevered pitch again and again with a ferocious attack. Bushland on the other hand came ready to play as their defense was FLYING around everywhere in the back row. Their block was timing almost every attack perfectly and slowed down the Gunter attack when it needed to. But, Gunter won a super tight first set 26-24 and their proud was rolling with excitement.
Set two was a little more of the same as Gunter still had the momentum after that first set win. They stormed out to a 4-1 run to open up the second set. Bushland was calm, cool, and collected as they used their great serve receive and some more legit defense to battle back and take the lead 7-5. It was back and forth again like two heavyweights punching each other in the center of the ring for the entire rest of the second set. Bushland took set two 25-21 after going on a late run to seal the deal. They looked like a team that had been there before. You could see it in their eyes that nothing was going to stop them from coming back from every hard punch from Gunter.
Set three was more of Bushland playing great defense and staying calm amidst a barrage of attacks coming their way from the high octane Gunter attack. Bushland did a very good job of moving the ball around well and hitting line when they needed to. Bushland stunned Gunter and went up 24-21. Gunter came back and had the crowd roaring when they scored two straight to be within one point at 23-24. Bushland ended the run and won 25-23. They were now up two sets to one in the Championship match.
The fourth set was different. Bushland was calm for the entire match, but they absolutely came alive and played with some amazing swag being up two sets to one. A lot of their players started playing with some fire and both teams were cheering loud after their teams ended rallies. This set was more of the same as it came down the wire again. Bushland won their State Title with a 25-23 win in the fourth set.
Junior middle Miranda Putnicki standing at 6’3” was a beast for Gunter and will be a force as a senior next year. Senior Libero Jaycee Adams was phenomenal in the back row for Bushland.
The following players received All Tournament honors from UIL at the State Tournament.
3A – 2021-2022
- Jaycee Adams – Senior – Bushland
- Kaela Neie – Junior – Bushland
- Shae Pruitt – Senior – Gunter
- Rayanna Mauldin – Junior – Gunter
- Hanna Rubis – Junior – Gunter
Championship Match Most Valuable Player
- Emma Troxell – Junior – Bushland
We would like to congratulate Bushland on their amazing season and way to cap it off with their second straight 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 Texas Family!