FRIENDSWOOD — After losing two tough District 23-4A matches to Friendswood this season, the Dickinson Lady Gators wanted one more shot at the Lady Mustangs.
Last night, in a regional quarterfinal showdown in front of a packed house at Clear Brook High School, Dickinson got its chance.
And with a 24-23 lead in game four and serving to close out the match, the Lady Gators almost made the third match of the season against Friendswood the charm.
So close — yet so agonizingly far away. Friendswood came back to win game four, and the match — 16-25, 25-17, 25-27, 26-24, 15-11 — to advance to the regional semifinals.
It probably wouldn’t have been much consolation to the disappointed Lady Gators after it was over, but it was a memorable, intensely competitive match that had the crowd — and both coaches — drained at its conclusion.
“I can’t talk right now, that wore me out,” Friendswood coach Jerry Linch said 10 minutes after the match. “Give me a few minutes.”
Later, Lady Gator coach Mitzi Matthews could only say, “That was a tough loss. The girls tried so hard. Everybody gave it everything they had.”
With an overflow crowd split down the middle between Friendswood and Dickinson partisans, the atmosphere was intense and raucous from the beginning.
The Lady Gators jumped out to a 5-1 lead in game one and cruised to a relatively easy 25-16 victory. Friendswood regained its composure in the second game, taking a 3-2 lead — its first of the match — en route to the eight-point victory.
With the crowd evenly divided between Dickinson and Friendswood fans, two fairly one-sided games gave both sides plenty to cheer for in the opening two games.
Games three and four, however, offered plenty of drama — and only added to the electric atmosphere the crowd was generating.
The Lady Gators built an 8-3 lead in the middle game of the match. After a kill by Whitney Rhoden and an ace by Laura Walker, Friendswood had cut the Dickinson advantage to three points, and looked poised to get back in the game. But the Lady Gators built the lead back up to 13-7.
Friendswood responded with a 6-1 run of its own to pull within 14-13. An extended rally that saw potential kills by Dickinson’s Kaylee Hawkins and Friendswood’s Whiney Rhoden answered by outstanding returns, was finally ended by a Hawkins’ kill to give the Gators a 2-point advantage in game three.
The Lady Mustangs came right back, tying the score at 23 and 24 before finally taking their first lead of the game at 25-24. The Lady Gators responded by winning the final two points to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
Game four was close throughout, featuring four ties — at 4, 5, 6 and 23 — before the Lady Gators took a 24-23 lead and served to win the match. Friendswood forced the fifth tie of the game at 24-all and took a 25-24 lead for the second game in a row. This time, the Lady Mustangs held on to take a 26-24 victory and even the match at two.
After two extraordinary games in a row, the deciding game featured one more dose of drama. Friendswood took a 4-1 lead before the Lady Gators fought back to force ties on points 10 and 11. At that point — with players on both sides looking exhausted — the Lady Mustangs managed four-straight points to take a 15-11 victory and close out a memorable match.
“That was just an amazing match,” Linch said, after taking a few minutes to catch his breath and collect his thoughts. “Dickinson played phenomenal defense and didn’t make many errors. Early on, we were excited and trying too hard and made too many errors. But we settled down and got it going.”
Dickinson, which ends its season 34-10, was led by Holly Anderson (42 assists), Kaylee Hawkins (33 kills) and Adriana Maldonado (16 digs).
Jenny Brekke (34 assists, 10 digs, 4 aces), Brannan O’Neill (23 digs), Jessie Hays (16 digs), Christie Dorch (13 kills, 5 blocks) and Whitney Rhoden (15 kills) led the way for the Lady Mustangs.
“Charlotte Mata (8 kills, 5 blocks) was a key to our success tonight. She played great. Brittany Hays was also an important part of this win. It was a real team effort,” Linch said.
Friendswood (35-6) moves on to face Montgomery next Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Atascocita High School in Humble.
Volleyball Roundup
• Clear Creek 3, Deer Park 2: Clear Creek advanced to the Class 5A regional quarterfinals with a 25-19, 21-25, 25-21, 18-25, 15-12 victory at Pasadena Dobie High School. Megan Pendergast had 24 digs, 23 kills and four blocks, and Becky Bekelja had 54 assists, 25 digs and three kills for Clear Creek (25-12). Madeline Gaffney had 21 kills and two blocks, and Haley Jacob had 39 digs. Natalie Kraus and Taylor Smith combined for 15 kills and four blocks.
• Santa Fe 3, Katy Seven Lakes 1: Santa Fe advanced to the Class 4A regional semifinals with a 23-25, 25-12, 25-20, 25-14 victory at Pearland High School. Tara Frantz led the Lady Indians with 25 kills, and Regina Trapp added 21. Kinsey Mims had 10 kills and 10 blocks, and Amanda Affolter had 12 kills. Kayla Tibaldo had 41 assists. The Lady Indians (29-12) will play Brenham early next week.
