THS faces tall order in Midlothian

MARSHALL, Texas— Texas High earned its second bi-district title under veteran head coach Melissa Hardy, who also is at win No. 311 after a sweep of John Tyler on Tuesday.

The Lady Tigers (26-10) gear back up for an area match against Midlothian (27-12) today at Robert E. Lee High School in Tyler. The contest is set for 7 p.m.

The Panthers swept Mesquite Poteet in the bi-district round.

“Midlothian has some tall girls; they hit a lot of high balls but don’t run what I would call a fast offense,” Hardy said. “They’ve got some really good athletes.

“If we pass well, set well and hit, we’ll be fine. There will be times when you don’t connect, but if we connect from our pass-set-hit we’ll put ourselves in a good position.”

Seniors Treyaunna Rush at outside hitter and Kaitlyn Cross at middle blocker were a big part of the offensive attack for THS in the first round. Senior Katelyn Jordan and Rush split setting duties, Vicki Willis is

the libero, and Mia Wilson is another senior defensive specialist for the Tigers.

Olivia Lower is the lone junior for THS and plays all the way around, sophomore Ashlyn Stiger rotates in at middle, and Shakeria Webb and Cashlin Gooden, also sophomores, rotate at hitter. Freshmen Logan Pilgreen, Ashanti Northcross, Valeria Perez, Lauren Allred and Ellison Davis were pulled up from the the playoffs.

“Defensively, we’ve been playing a lot better,” Hardy said. “They were a little nervous at the beginning of the game (Tuesday), and so we had a number of unforced errors. We settled down, and we keep telling the girls as we go further in the playoffs we can’t have those unforced errors. We’ve got to cut those numbers down.”

The area winner advances to next week’s Region II-5A quarterfinal match against either Hallsville or Joshua.

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