L-E takes on Bullard to launch postseason

LONGVIEW, Texas—LibertyEylau’s playoff push commences today in Longview facing Bullard in the Class 4A bi-district volleyball round.

“I’m a little nervous but extremely excited for this opportunity,” Liberty-Eylau head coach Kaylee Treas-Dalby said. “We have had a great couple of practices and the girls are locked in.”

Liberty-Eylau (14-12) finished fourth in District 15-4A, while Bullard (27-10) are the District 16-4A champions.

“We’re changing up some things with how we do our road trips,” Treas-Dalby said. “We want to keep the girls more focused while we travel. We’re keeping the same schedule but we’re going to a play where we’ve never played. Hopefully, we can get a little warmup time for both teams before we step on the court to play.”

Bullard finished district with a unblemished record of 12-0 and the Lady Leopards finished 2-6 in league competition.

Senior Mariah Coleman is the libero and also shares the captain duties with senior middle blocker Keeley Norris and junior outside hitter Daycoria Meadows.

Senior Savannah Phelps, junior Kirsten Stuard, freshman Kayla Crabtree and freshman Kaclyn Nelson will rotate at defensive specialist for the Leopards.

“We had a team meeting and I told the girls it’s going to take a total team effort in this opening round,” TreasDalby said. “We can’t just have two girls hitting, but we all are going to have to hit. We’re going to have to play smart, like we know how to play. We can’t just go out there and go through the motions.”

Senior Kayla Norris and freshman Bryana Block will provide a spark for the Leopards from their outside hitter positions.

Sophomore Alyssa Little will rotate in as setter, while sophomores Tamara Norris and Breana Webster will roam the court from their middle blocker post.

“We’ve worked on a lot of hitting the past week,” Treas-Dalby said. “We worked hard on placing the ball and setting the ball for our hitters.”

The winner of tonight’s match advances to the area round later this week to face either Community or Brownsboro.