On the heels of a five-game winning streak to finish the regular season, the varsity volleyball team prepared to get their playoff run going with a first-round clash against the Austin High Maroons at the Burger Center. The Lady Warriors were able to carry their positive momentum en route to a dominant three-set sweep over their first-round foes, dominating from start to finish. Only trailing for ten points in the entire match, the Lady Warriors got contributions for a handful of players to obliterate the Maroons 25-16, 25-18, 25-17.

Peyton Ferree ‘22 led the ladies with 16 kills and five players combined for nine aces on the night. Kenzie Beckham ‘21 also had a solid all-around effort with five kills, 20 assists, and 14 digs. Abby Gregorczyk ‘21 added 12 digs, and Lola Fernandez ‘23 chipped in with ten digs of her own.

“The positive winning streak definitely gave us a ton of momentum going into [the] playoffs, and that carried over to our first game,” Beckham said.

The Warriors had a firm grasp on the first match of the game, never trailing in the opening frame of the contest. The ladies ended the first set on a 10-1 run to put an exclamation mark on a strong start. 

After a great start to the clash, the Maroons slowly began to try and find a rhythm offensively, but were never able to get going, a trend for them throughout the match. The Maroons were able to hold the lead for brief moments, but the Warriors were able to cruise to a 21-10 lead, eventually closing out the set 25-18.

“We came out with a ton of fire and Austin wasn’t expecting that from us,” Beckham said.

The third set started out more even than the previous two sets, as both teams traded points in the early goings. At one point, the two sides were deadlocked at ten points apiece, but the Lady Warriors were able to capitalize on a 9-2 run to take control of the match and eventually confirm their advancement to the next round, where they would play Madison, unfortunately falling in four sets to end their run.