LADY HIGHLANDERS HEAD TO STATE
Lady Highlanders overtake neighbor College Park for regional title
The Woodlands High’s Lady Highlanders are heading to the state volleyball final four next weekend defeating The Woodlands College Park Saturday in the Region II finals in Huntsville. College Park won the first set, but the Lady Highlanders, 38-2, won the next three to clinch a trip to state. The Woodlands will take on O’Connor High in the state semifinals in Garland.
HUNTSVILLE — With tears of joy streaming from her eyes, AJ Koele stood underneath the bright lights of Johnson Coliseum as a regional champion.
She was just a freshman when The Woodlands won its second consecutive state championship in 2014.
And after suffering through heartbreaking losses to Oak Ridge in the Region II-6A finals the past two seasons, she and Lady Highlanders were finally moving on.
“I’m so happy,” said Koele, the team’s AllAmerica senior middle blocker. “It’s awesome. This is my third time here, and we just wanted it so bad, and we worked so hard to get here and just have the satisfaction of actually winning. Coming here and losing twice has been so hard, but actually winning has been so amazing.”
The Woodlands punched its ticket to the UIL state tournament for the fourth time in program history on Saturday afternoon, defeating crosstown rival College Park 22-25, 29-27, 25-22, 25-14 in a thrilling battle on the campus of Sam Houston State University.
Led by third-year coach Terri Wade, the Lady Highlanders (38-2) are headed up north to Garland, Texas, for the Class 6A semifinals, which will be played at 5 and 7 p.m. on Friday at the Curtis Culwell Center. The matchups will be announced by the UIL in the next couple of days.
“You can’t even describe how excited they are, how excited us coaches are right now,” Wade said. “Just not wanting to repeat that feeling of defeat, I’m just so proud of them right now. … I think following along with the Astros [slogan] this year, they actually earned it tonight because College Park put up a big fight for us.”
The Woodlands, playing in the regional finals for the fifth straight season, used the disappointment of the past two years as motivation and found a way to prevail in a tough match against a familiar opponent in the Lady Cavaliers (29-9).
The Lady Highlanders have now defeated College Park in 12 of the last 13 meetings between the two programs, including three times this season.
College Park, making its first-ever appearance in the regional tournament, handed the Lady Highlanders their first set loss since Oct. 10 with an opening victory. That snapped a 24-set winning streak for The Woodlands, which has only dropped 11 sets all season long.
The Lady Highlanders responded in Game 2 by pulling out a gritty 29-27 victory to even the match, and held on late in the third set to put the Lady Cavaliers on the brink of elimination. The Woodlands began to pull away toward the middle of the fourth and final game before ultimately finishing off the match.
“It was crazy,” The Woodlands senior outside hitter Courtney Heiser said of the pivotal second set. “If we hadn’t won the second set, I don’t think we would have won the [match]. The hitters just really stood up, and the defense was getting everything, and we just came out and delivered.”
Heiser and Koele led the Lady Highlanders’ attack throughout the match, finishing with 16 kills apiece. Dylan Mayberry finished with 14 kills, and setter Sophie Walls orchestrated the offense with 45 assists to go along with 15 digs. Georgia Murphy led the team with 30 digs, and Skylar Scott added 20.
College Park was led by Lauren Freeman, who finished with 18 kills and 12 digs.
Annie Cooke and Noelle Palmer were also key contributors with 12 kills apiece, and Mackenzie Nunes capped the match with 47 assists. CC Clausen had a team-high 28 digs, and Jill Bohnet finished with 19.
Despite the loss, College Park coach Candice Gibson was proud of everything her team accomplished throughout the season. Her players broke multiple individual records, and the program surpassed the 300-win mark just before the playoffs.
“This is such a special group of kids,” Gibson said. “I think every day, they came in and worked hard to prove everybody wrong.
“I think at the beginning of the season, we didn’t have any expectations. But once we saw things developing, we started getting hungrier and hungrier for success. Every day they just kept grinding to get here.”