Lake Travis View

Who saw this coming?

Well, the Lady Cavaliers, for one.

Lake Travis dominated Cibolo Steele 25-14, 25-23 and 25-20, winning the 4A Region IV championship Saturday afternoon at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, and head to San Marcos tonight to play Highland Park in the state semifinal at Strahan Coliseum at 7 p.m.

The Lady Cavs made winning the region look easy, never losing a game in their matches against Steele and Medina Valley, who they beat  25-17, 25-15 and 25-10, in the regional semifinal.

The match was never really in doubt, as the Lady Cavaliers rolled out to resounding leads in each game, sealing the state quarterfinal berth with a 10-3 start to the third game, and dominating down the stretch against a Medina Valley team that had all but given up.

Lake Travis then lined up with Steele. Steele advanced to the regional tournament by defeating Hutto in three games. Lake Travis swept Hutto earlier in the season, but dropped two straight matches to the Lady Hippos at the end of the district schedule, marking the Lady Cavs’ only defeats since the first week of September.

“At this point, we can’t compare games we played earlier in the season,” Lake Travis outside hitter Anna Massey said after the Medina Valley match. “Steele also took five games to beat Hendrickson, who we beat twice this year. It doesn’t matter. You have to throw those things out now that it’s the playoffs.”

And they did.

Lake Travis continued to display its versatility, going up against a talented group led by middle blocker McKenzie Adams – a player capable of dominating any match.

“We really did our best to take Adams out of the game, and keep her on the back row,” Lake Travis head coach Julie Green said. “[We] played so confident the whole time. Even when we got down, our serve receive was doing really well. We knew that if we passed the ball up, we could get it right back.”

Lake Travis trailed early in the first game before tying things up at 5-5, and then pulling away, never trailing after being tied at 6-6. They closed it out with a Mackenzie Smith ace and a tip kill by Elissa Underwood.

The second game was a little more dicey.

Lake Travis trailed the majority of the match before tying multiple times at 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 19. But Steele reeled off three straight points to take a 22-19 lead and leave the game in doubt for Lake Travis. Green called a timeout to regroup and try to make one more run, and while the situation seemed precarious, every Lady Cavalier swore afterward that the confidence level hadn’t been shaken.

“I was thinking I had confidence in our defense, I knew we were going to sideout and I knew we were going to win in three,” Lake Travis libero Meg Reesing said. “There was no doubt.”

Lake Travis put together a 3-0 rally to tie, and after Steele took a 23-22 lead, Meredith Murphy dropped a big kill, Morgan Hendrix put down an even bigger block and Lani Durio fired an ace to win the game.

The win was so sudden and such a heartbreaker that it actually sent one Steele player into a near nervous breakdown.

With the wind completely out of their sails, Steele battled, but eventually crumpled in the third game, and up 24-20, Lake Travis freshman Amy Neal set herself to serve. The ball dropped for an ace on the other side of the net, and the Lady Cavaliers went crazy.

“I was just praying for Amy right before the serve. Over and over,” Murphy said. “It feels pretty good. No, more like amazingly awesome.”

Neal has found herself in the middle of the playoff run after getting called by Green from the junior varsity. In her first regional match against Medina Valley, she had three kills. Saturday she had three aces. Talk about jumping in at the right time.

“I was pretty excited just to be a part of the playoffs,” Neal said. “It’s felt really good just to know that Coach Green trusts me to play at this level.”

Now, she’s just another player that adds to Lake Travis’ versatility.

Leyva finished with 11 kills, followed by Hendrix, Murphy and Taylor Smith, all with six kills. Murphy also had 16 kills and three aces. Durio had 20 assists and Mackenzie Smith had 16. Hendrix led the team with 2.5 blocks.

This will be Lake Travis’ first trip to state since the 1996 Lady Cavaliers made it to the 3A title game, and eventually finished state runner-up.