MINERAL WELLS – The most successful campaign in the history of the Early Lady Horns volleyball program, which dates to 2014, came to an end Thursday night with a four-set 25-23, 20-25, 25-19, 25-15 loss to District 7 champion Holliday in the Region I-3A Division II bi-district round of the playoffs.
Early completed the season with 28 victories in 36 matches, the highest win total for the Lady Horns in their 12 years of competition.
“It’s a been a great year for these girls,” Early head coach Missy Vaughn said after Tuesday’s match. “These girls have learned a lot. It was a great, senior-led team with four seniors that came out and set the tone early on. The younger ones came along and followed and they put it all together and had a really successful year. I’m proud of these seniors. I wish them all the success in the future, and they have started something at Early.”
In the opening set, the Lady Horns (28-8) held a 22-17 advantage late, but Holliday (25-8) stormed back with eight of the final nine points to steal the set.
Vaughn said had the Lady Horns held on in the opening set, it could have changed the trajectory of the match because Early was able to keep Holliday at arm’s length in the second set.
“That was big,” Vaughn said of bouncing back in the second set. “The first set was close, we played them point for point and that was a good thing. To come back and win the second set was a nice confidence booster. The girls came out in that second set determined. They knew they could play with them and obviously they did the second set.”
In the third and fourth sets, however, slow starts plagued the Lady Horns. Early allowed five of the first six points in the third set, and nine of the first 10 points in the final set, and were unable to dig out of the holes.
“We had a lot of miscues,” Vaughn said. “Sometimes we weren’t talking on defense with the dig and the pass, and on offense same thing with the setter and our hitters. There were just a couple of things we missed.”
Aubrie DeVillier paced the Lady Horn attack with 15 kills followed by 12 from Jensyn Rasor, five from Kailyn Gallardo, three from Grey Pruett and one by Cassidy Frerichs.
Pruett also contributed 22 assists while 11 came from Frerichs, and Pruett served four aces as well followed by two from Rasor and one apiece from DeVillier and Gabby Benson.
On the defensive end, DeVillier notched a team-high 17 digs along with 16 from Pruett, 15 from Benson, 11 from Rasor, 10 from Frerichs, seven from Pruett, two from Ellie Shea and one by Tiffany Phelps.
At the net, Pruett registered a pair of blocks and Rasor was credited with one.
Tuesday’s match was the last for Lady Horn seniors Rasor, Benson, Frerichs and Phelps.
