Tori Espinoza and the rest of her Lady Lobo volleyball teammates had an excellent week, capped off with an exciting five-game win over Akins. (Photo by Eric Guerrero)

by MARK CAUL

What a week it turned out to be for the Lehman Lobo volleyball team.

In a span of four days, they collected four wins, highlighted by a thrilling come-from-behind home victory against Akins.

The Lady Lobos also managed to sweep through the consolation silver bracket of the San Marcos High Invitational Tournament.

“We are really starting to play better, more confident volleyball over the past few days,” Lehman head coach Gloria Sandoval said. “That’s definitely a great sign going into district play on Friday.”

After dropping three straight matches in pool play on the first day of competition in San Marcos, the Lady Lobos responded by dispatching three consecutive opponents in Sealy (16-25, 25-22, 25-20), San Antonio Brennan (20-25, 25-22, 25-15) and Poteet (25-20, 27-25).

For the second straight tournament, the Lady Lobos played extremely well in the second day of action after failing to secure a win in the opening round.

“I’m not sure why we’ve been playing better in bracket play but maybe our energy level seems to be a little bit higher,” said senior setter Vikki Smith. “If we could have played the way we played on Saturday, we obviously would have been able to finish higher.”

A slow start didn’t hamper Lehman’s chances in their heart-stopping win over Akins in which two of the area’s best outside hitters were on full display in Lady Lobo Mariana Filipi and Akins’ Leslie Hansen.

After Lehman pounded away at the Akins defense for six easy points to start the first game and take an early 7-2 advantage, Hansen and teammate Jill Wamble got on track and helped the Bears close to 9-6.

From there, Filipi and Andreana Martinez each had a pair of kills and Smith added two of her game-high 32 assists as Lehman cruised to an easy 25-9 win in the opening set.

The second game belonged to Akins and Hansen as she pounded five of her game-high 19 kills to even the match at 1-1 with a 25-12 win in the second set.

Lehman took advantage of a couple of Akins hitting errors in the late stages of the game to win the third game 25-23 before Akins came back with a close win of their own 26-24 to even the match at two games apiece.

The deciding game came down to the experienced setting of Smith and Lehman’s defense behind Feliciana Ortiz’s eight digs and five big kills from Filipi.

With Lehman clinging to a slim 10-9 lead, Filipi’s timely dig led to a cross-court kill by Imani Fairman. Another ace by Smith pushed the lead to 12-9 and the Lady Lobos never looked back.

“It’s always nice to get a win but when you’re able to be a part of such an exciting game it’s even better,” Filipi said. “We played really good defense and finished the game strong.”

Lehman (8-10) will open district play this Friday in Lockhart.