By Mike Blackwell
Hays Lady Rebel head volleyball coach Stephanie Coates is a mother and a coach, so she understands the chaos that is the first week of school. That understanding means she also knows just how impressive her team’s 25-14, 25-10, 25-3 shellacking of the Akins Eagles was Tuesday at Joe Graham Gym.
“I was happy with the way we played, especially with it being the first week of school,” Coates said. “These girls are mentally fatigued, the first week of school is tough on everybody. They’ve had to change their routine..we’ve got nine teams in our district, so it’s a large district and we start district play awfully early.”
Hays didn’t appear to be suffering from any mental fatigue in its match against Akins. But early on, the two teams battled to an 11-11 tie in the first set when Coates called a time out. Hays responded by scoring five consecutive points coming out of the time out, with Hays’ last point coming on a Kaitlyn Krafka kill.
The Lady Rebels finished off the first set with setter Mackenzie Coates serving for five straight points, building a 23-13 lead. Hailee Morton ended the set with a kill.
“I was really happy with our serving,” Coates said.
Hays maintained momentum in the second set, with Callie Britton serving out the set with eight consecutive points. Akins tried to counter the Hays onslaught by calling a pair of time outs. But Coates’ team continued the bludgeoning against the shorter, under matched Eagles.
The third set was merely a formality, as Hays steamrolled the Eagles, leading at one point by a score of 20-2. Coates managed to get some younger players into the match in the third set. She said it was valuable playing time for a squad that lost eight seniors from last year’s team and is playing with relatively inexperienced setters.
Coates said that the Lady Rebels’ quick start might be attributed to their stout pre-district schedule, playing in strong tournaments in Round Rock and New Braunfels.
“Moving from 4A to 6A, we’ve had to adjust to how fast the game is at this level,” Coates said. “All of the teams we played before tonight were very, very fast, and I think that helped us.”
The Lady Rebels host McCallum on Sept. 3.