SPECIAL SPARTANS
Spartans defeat Klein in four sets for first state title for school district
Seven Lakes clips Klein to earn program’s first state volleyball title.
GARLAND — The allHouston Class 6A volleyball final, taking place in suburban Dallas, delivered on intensity and excitement. Seven Lakes was left holding the biggest prize.
The Spartans bested previously undefeated Klein in four sets (24-26, 25-22, 2520, 25-22) to win the program’s first state championship Saturday at the Curtis Culwell Center. Seven Lakes is Katy ISD’s first state volleyball champion as well.
It was the first all-Houston final since The Woodlands and Clear Falls met in 2014. Even considering COVID-19 and the limitations it presents, the 200-plus miles between Garland and both Seven Lakes and Klein didn’t prevent a raucous Houston-area crowd from enhancing the atmosphere.
There were plenty comebacks, too. Klein took the first set and led 18-12 in the second before Seven Lakes roared back. Seven Lakes dug deep in the fourth set and held off a late Klein rally to seal the win.
Seven Lakes coach Amy
Cataline coached against and beat this Seven Lakes program during her nine years leading Fort Bend Austin. This year, her Spartans answered every challenge they needed to — including a midseason COVIDoutbreak among the team.
The team shut down in mid-October because of COVID-19. Seven Lakes played catch-up with five district games in the span of a week before November’s playoffs started.
“We were hit by it twice, and we just always talked about what we wanted the headline to be,” Cataline said. “Arewe going to throw our hands up because we had to sit out for two and a half weeks without playing volleyball with half of our team out with COVID? Or are we going to come back stronger and let that be part of our story?
“We all decided it’s going to be part of our story. There’s no choice. This is just a fairytale ending to what seems like an adventure.”
Seven Lakes (25-1) doesn’t take being Katy ISD’s first volleyball state champion
lightly, either. The state’s seventh-largest district regularly is strong in athletics and yet only had three teams — 2017 Seven Lakes, 1991Katy Taylor and1968Katy — play for a volleyball state championship before Saturday.
Ally Batenhorst’s high school career got the perfect ending. The senior earned title game MVP honors
with 30 kills. The Nebraska commitment has been regarded as one of the nation’s top recruits since her freshman year.
Ask Batenhorst, and she’s mostly glad to celebrate with her family. She and older sister Dani Batenhorst were on the 2017 team that fell to Lewisville Hebron in the state final. Now, Ally and CaseyBatenhorst share winning
gold together. Casey, the team’s junior setter, had 52 assists Saturday.
“It’s insane,” Ally Batenhorst said. “Being able to play freshman year withmy older sister and making it to the state championship, winning silver and thennow my senior year, I’m withmy younger sister and winning gold. It’s unreal, and it’s an incredible feeling.”
Casey Batenhorst was in attendance for the 2017 state final as an eighth grader.
“I was amazed,” Casey said. “It was just so fun to see how passionate they were about it and made me love volleyball even more than I already did.”
Onthe other side is heartbreak but also reverence for a remarkable season. Klein (27-1) was the state’s topranked 6A teamin the Texas Girls Coaches Association poll and played like it, earning the program’s first berth in a state championship game.
Kleinwas led Saturday by sophomore Ariana Brown’s 12 kills, junior Gaby Mansfield’s 27 digs, senior Camryn Kling’s 22 assists and junior Kierstyn McFall’s five blocks.
Let the rally from a 17-12 deficit to take a 22-21 lead late in the fourth set be indicative of the kind of team Klein was in 2020.
“We realized this was it,” Kling said of the fourth set. “We had to push to win this next set. We all really wanted it bad. We fought. We came back. We couldn’t get the job done, but I’m really proud of how we came back.”