Waxahachie senior libero Baylee Whitehead breaks a serve Tuesday night during a win against Grand Prairie. (Fred Phipps/KBEC Sports)

No. 18 Waxahachie Lady Indians record second consecutive sweep

Travis M. Smith October 3, 2019 Volleyball, Waxahachie High School 1,719 Views

By Travis M. Smith | KBEC Sports

The state-ranked Waxahachie Lady Indians recorded a second-consecutive district sweep Tuesday at home against Grand Prairie.

The Lady Indians won the District 7-6A home match in consecutive sets, 25-16, 25-9, 25-10, capturing their 30th win of the season to just 11 losses.

Waxahachie has now won eight out of the past nine matches and is 5-1 in District 7-6A.

Due to a slew of unforced errors on the Grand Prairie side, Tuesday’s statistics are not quite as dominant as the score would indicate.

Lacy Mott led the Lady Indians with seven kills, while Emma Smithey and Madi Babers each added six and Jh’kyah Head had four.

Mott also recorded a team-best six aces on the evening. Kate Morgan (4), Baylee Whitehead (4), Avery Long (3) and Ragan Ward (3) also recorded multiple aces in the win.

Ward accounted for a team-high 23 assists and added four digs. Whitehead finished the match 14-of-15 on serves received.

“I was pleased with the way we played,” Waxahachie head volleyball coach Sandy Faussett-Stoops said. “We had good ball-handling and not a lot of unforced errors and that was kind of our goal going in. We just did not want to give up many points.”

BACK IN THE POLLS

The Lady Indians fell from No. 11 to No. 18 in this week’s Texas Girls Coaches Association 6A poll.

Waxahachie first entered the top-25 after upsetting then-top-10 Mansfield Lake Ridge and then dropped a few spots following a loss to also-state-ranked Mansfield.

The Mansfield Lady Tigers are currently the 13th-ranked team in the 6A poll, while Lake Ridge checks in at No. 16.

Waxahachie, of course, climbed inside the top-10 in the TGCA 6A poll and USA Today National rankings during the 2018 season, which was their first in Class 6A.

Babers, a senior middle blocker, stated that — inside the locker room at least — returning inside the TGCA 6A Top-25 was discussed amongst the Lady Indians.

“It was a goal before the season started,” said Babers, noting the Lady Indians did not focus on the ranking once the season began.

Faussett-Stoops also noted the strength of schedule has a lot to do with state rankings.

“The goal for our team is to always reach our potential and be the best team possible,” the head coach said. “And, depending on who else in the state we are competing against, we may not get that ranking. I am very, very pleased with the way we have played this whole season. I think they have very much been on a mission to maintain that level of play from last year and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

UP NEXT

The Lady Indians wrap up the first half of 7-6A play at 6:30 p.m. Friday at home against Mansfield Summit. They then begin the second half of district action by hosting South Grand Prairie at 5 p.m. Tuesday before traveling Friday, Oct. 11 to Mansfield Lake Ridge.

For Babers and Faussett-Stoops, both agreed that the team needs to focus on building confidence during practice leading up to those matches.

“The one thing that I liked about when we played Lake Ridge last time was the amount of confidence that we had going into the match, even knowing that we had lost to them previously twice early in the season,” Faussett-Stoops said. “But I thought we played with a lot of composure and a lot of confidence and I’d like to continue to see that.

“We also need to continue to clean up our game because we are talking about a few points here and there. Maybe serve a little higher serving percentage, because that is an area that we continue to need to improve on, but, other than that, we just need to continue to improve.”