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Lady Buckaroos open district play with four-set victory

Tue, 10/17/2017 - 3:16 pm

The Breckenridge High School volleyball team opened the district season with a victory after topping Early in fourth sets (25-18, 23-25, 25-20 and 25-13).

The Lady Buckaroos may have struggled against some of Texas’ most elite teams in the pre-district season, but that adversity seemed to pay dividends Saturday.

“They were able to recognize that we messed up a few times where to set the ball and things like that, but they were able to move the ball around and because of the teams we played we were able to do that,” Coach Jeana Yarbrough said.

The Lady Buckaroos pounded Early in the first set after jumping out to a 7-1 lead with senior middle blocker Makenna Moser exploding out of the gate with two kills and a block, along with aces by sophomore libero Anna Reaugh and sophomore outside hitter Madison Stanley. Breckenridge continued building its lead until a pair of aces by senior outside hitter Kelli Wilcox set up match point and a kill by Stanley finished it off.

“We earned it. We worked hard,” Stanley said. “This feels great. Like Coach Yarbrough says, ‘we found our perfect outfit.’ We had a certain group in and when we kept that group in we just kept it going.”

In the second set, the Lady Buckaroos seemed content to play the long game instead of going for the sweep. With numerous players substituting throughout the game, Breckenridge and Early played to a stalemate at 22-22 until a block set up match point, then a net violation gave the set to Early 25-23. Fresh legs seemed to make the difference in the third set with both teams playing neck-and-neck once again, until a Wilcox kill put Moser at the serving line, where she tallied four consecutive aces to set up match point and give the Lady Buckaroos a 25-20 victory.

“I knew I had to serve safely and get it over or we would not have had a chance to get points,” Moser said.

With the momentum now firmly in the Lady Buckaroos favor, Breckenridge jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the fourth set off a kill and a pair of blocks by Moser, a kill by sophomore Calista Lambert and another Stanley ace. A block by Stanley set up match point and, similar to game one, she finished Early off with a kill to take the game in four sets with a double-digit victory. Before Saturday, the Lady Buckaroos had a 4-19 record with many of those losses coming to state contenders. Moser believe all of the adversity they faced early on made a difference Saturday.

“It helped us, 100 percent,” Moser said. “It definitely discouraged us after those losses, but it made us better and more prepared.”

The Lady Buckaroos will face district rival Bangs Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. then head on the road another district game against Comanche at noon Saturday.

“Typically, Bangs has been pretty weak from the times I have seen them, but we’re not going to assume anything,” Moser said. “We’re going to play our hardest Tuesday and not play down. We definitely can’t under estimate them because you never know what they’re going to have.”