Big Spring Lady Steers complete season sweep of Estacado, win 3-1 on Saturday
The second round of district matchup’s have begun in volleyball and the Big Spring Lady Steers hosted the Estacado Lady Matadors on Saturday afternoon inside Steer Gym for their second meeting of the season.
The first meeting went the Lady Steers way when they defeated the Lady Matadors
3-1 in four sets. The meeting on Saturday was more of the same with the same 3-1 winning outcome as back in late September. The Lady Steers are now 3-3 in district play and completed the in-season sweep of Estacado. Heading into the game with a 2-3 district record, Head Volleyball Coach Kaitlyn Braswell knew her team needed a win but they were treating it like any other game.
“We try to treat every game as a must-win, but we are more focused on playing our best game every game. If we do that, the end result will take care of itself,” she said.
The Lady Steers started off the match with the most complete and dominant set they have put together on the court this season. The team was moving well together as a unit and the starting unit of Ryen Terrazas, Kalyn Whitehead, Tristan Smith, Jacqueline Belew, Jocelyn Gonzales, and Ashlin Calvio helped the Lady Steers jump out to a 12-0 lead before Estacado could answer back.
Terrazas was controlling everything at the net, Gonzales hit an ace serve and was hitting accurate serve after accurate serve to keep the Lady Steers going. Whitehead finished the set with a strong kill that had the whole gym mesmerized and gave her team a 25-3 first set victory.
“It was definitely the best set we’ve had as a team this season,” Braswell said. “We finished the set with zero unforced errors which is a huge accomplishment. I’m extremely proud of how hard our girls worked to achieve that.”
The second set was much more competitive and Estacado seemed to take the court with a revamped energy. The set went back-and-forth with each team taking the lead at some point. Big Spring was able to answer for the most part and used a lot of nice passes to get their opponent out of position. This allowed them to run away near the end of the set and come away with a 25-20 second set win.
Estacado came out firing in the third set and looked like the best team on the court. Big Spring was able to keep it close but as soon as they got within striking distance, the Lady Matadors would go on a scoring run. Following a timeout, Braswell’s bunch made a concerted effort near the end of the set to make a comeback. The attempt fell just short and the game was pushed to a fourth set when Estacado won 25-23.
The Lady Steers had enough of the Lady Matadors on Saturday afternoon and decided to make the fourth set the game finisher. Belew made several strong plays for the Lady Steers but the game was still neckand-neck. With the score tied at 12, the Lady Steers put together a string of good possessions to pull away from the Lady Matadors. The streak was not ended until the score was 17-13 and the Lady Steers had built up a four-point lead. Big Spring scored eight of the last 13 points of the game and came away with a 3-1 victory after winning the fourth set 25-18.
The Lady Steers will now have a chance to sweep Lake View when they take them on Tuesday night and move their district record to 4-3.
“As we saw with Saturday’s game, we just have to limit mistakes on our side of the court. We won’t be able to give them easy points for our unforced errors. As long as we come ready to compete, we will get the ending we are working for.”
UP NEXT: Big Spring travels to Lake View to take on the Maidens this Tuesday night at 6:00 p.m.
Shawn Moran is the sports writer at the Big Spring Herald. To contact him, e-mail sports@bigspringherald.com or call 432-263-7331.