LAKE TRAVIS ENDS 5-YEAR DISTRICT DROUGHT VS. RIVAL CHAPS
LAKEWAY — For a few moments in Tuesday’s District 25-6A showdown between Westlake and Lake Travis, it seemed the Chap jinx over their Hill Country rivals would extend another match.
Cassidy Ehrie and her Cavalier teammates, however, blocked out such juju. Literally.
Ehrie, a 6-foot middle blocker now in her third year on Lake Travis’ varsity team, had three big blocks in the waning moments of the fourth set to help the Cavs secure a 25-17, 25-16, 16-25, 25-21 victory in a meeting between the two highest-ranked Class 6A teams in the latest American-Statesman poll. The victory Tuesday at Lake Travis High School not only gave Lake Travis (22-11, 6-0) sole possession of first place in the district race, but it also snapped a nine-match losing skid to the Chaps (22-9, 5-1) in district play.
According to Ehrie, her team’s struggles against Westlake — the Chaps entered the match with an overall record of 14-2 in the series — were just another distraction for the Cavs to tune out.
“Our coach (Brandace Boren) talks about not letting the pressure get to you on game day,” she said. “Our team cancels everything else out and just gets it done.”
Getting it done seemed in doubt for Lake Travis late in the fourth set. Out- played early in the match before finding their rhythm in the third set, the Chaps rallied from a 16-9 deficit in the fourth and seized a 21-18 lead.
But Ehrie refused to let her team fold. After a kill by classmate Madison Williams, Ehrie stuffed a shot by Westlake’s Brooke Brockman and celebrated by motioning toward the Chaps’ side of the court.
“I don’t know what I was doing,” Ehrie said with a grin after the match. “Sometimes that just happens.”
Ehrie’s block sent Lake Travis’ vocal student section into a frenzy and seemed to rattle the Chaps. Cav soph- omore Jamison Wheeler evened the set at 21-21 with a kill, and Ehrie gave Lake Travis the lead with another block. After a Westlake hit- ting error and another Wheeler kill, Ehrie fittingly ended the match with her sixth total block of the match.
“I’m glad she’s on our team,” Boren said.
According to Boren, she knew that Westlake would make a run despite the Cavs’ dominance through the first two sets. Her team’s response would determine whether the Cavs could pick up a district win over Westlake for the first time since 2013.
“We knew it would be a battle,” Boren said. “We talked about never getting comfortable. And the moment that we did com- fortable, they did come back. But I think we wanted it just a little bit more.”
Lake Travis had an advantage in the middle on both sides of the net. The Cavs blocked nine Westlake shots and forced the Chaps into an inordinate amount of tips and roll shots. Lake Travis setter Abbie Watts, who had 25 assists, also found her middles in transition. Ehrie had nine kills, and Sasha Rudich had eight kills and three total blocks.
“It’s the biggest block we’ve seen so far in district play,” Westlake coach Marci Laracuente said. “They may have gotten in our head early on, and we didn’t do a good enough job of mixing it up.”
Outside hitter Kristen Kleymeyer led Lake Travis with 15 kills, and Casey Campbell paced Westlake with 13 kills. Outside hitter Jada Birkel, Westlake’s leading attacker, had just six kills but led the Chaps with 4 ½ blocks.
Laracuente, whose team has won at least a share of the district title in 14 consecutive seasons, said “when you lose, you can learn a lot, and that should help us through the rest of district. This (district race) is not over yet.”
And how will the Cavs celebrate the win over their fiercest rival? “Oh, we’ll eat some cake or something, but we’re back in the gym (Wednesday),” Boren said.