Class 6A Ridge Point, 4A Needville lose in finals

GARLAND — Ridge Point’s historic season came to an end Saturday night.

Flower Mound beat the Lady Panthers 24-26, 25-21, 26-24, 2522 in the Class 6A state final at the Curtis Culwell Center.

The Lady Panthers end the season 47-6.

“Very proud of the girls,” Ridge Point coach Lori McLaughlin said. “Flower Mound is a phenomenal team and I’m prod of how my girls fought. It was a great start taking that first step and great momentum. Very proud of the girls.”

Ridge Point was making its first state tournament appearance.

The Lady Panthers were led by senior outside hitter Skylar Fields.

The Texas signee had a gamehigh 23 kills with 12 digs.

“We have been super blessed to have an athlete of that caliber for as long as we have,” McLaughin said. “She’s going to continue to do great things with her club team and then at Texas. I’m excited for her.”

Claire Jeter added 13 kills and three digs, and junior setter Reagan Rutherford had 27 assists, 15 digs and nine kills.

The Lady Panthers will return 15 players for next season and will look to make another deep playoff run.

Needville, meanwhile, was the only team at this year’s state tournament that won a title last year.

The Lady Jays had a chance to defend their Class 4A championship, and the pressure was on.

“I felt like we knew we had a target on our backs being the defending state champs,” senior Madison Schultz said. “We had to play up to it and we couldn’t take it for granted.”

Decatur beat Needville in four sets 25-12, 21-25, 27-25, 25-18 in the 4A final.

“It just wasn’t our day,” Needville coach Amy Schultz said. “We don’t normally play that way and for some reason we did. At this level, you can’t, and we did for some reason. I can’t explain it. I don’t think it was nerves; we just didn’t play our game.”

Madison Schultz led the Lady Jays with 21 kills and added 17 digs.

Anna Gadway had 24 assists and 12 kills for Needville.