Serves, passing key in Wildcats victory

WAELDER — Coming off a season-opening loss, the Waelder Lady Wildcats were looking for a bounce back against a familiar opponent. Going up against the team they beat last year in the bi-district round, the Lady Cats were able to repeat their performance, improving on their serving and passing to get the four-set win over the Dime Box Longhorns Tuesday evening (22-25, 25-22, 25-15, 25-23).

“Serves were key,” Waelder head coach Martha Zuniga said of the win. “Ke’Shaya [Moore] had great couple serves there, she really pushed us over in Game 3. We had some good kills and digs. Our freshman Jakhia Thompson, she stepped up big for us in the middle. Raven [Rodriguez], who is our other freshman, came in to serve for Ashlynn [Noyola] because she has got a little bit of a hurt shoulder. Just playing together as a team was our biggest thing to come out with that win.”

The first set was an issue for the Lady Cats. Serve-receive was a problem as Dime Box took the win in a tight match where the biggest lead was six points.

“At times, we have issues with our serve-receive,” Zuniga said, “but that’s one thing we work on in practice, one thing we’ll continue to work on with our serving, it’s that and serve-receive.”

But Waelder turned it around in the second set, getting an eight-point lead as they were up 18-10 late in the set. Attacks came in from everywhere, with Honesty Fields, Brejhai Montgomery and Laisha Rangel scoring on kills in the set.

“All my girls are able to swing and hit the ball and step up when we need them to,” Zuniga touted. “It just doesn’t come down to one hitter the rest of the year. It comes down to six.”

The second-year head coach explained that players such as Rangel have stepped up in the front line as an attacker, as opposed to last year when they came from just Fields, Montgomery or Malorie Puente, who was out for Tuesday’s game.

“[Rangel is] a senior. She has stepped up a lot,” Zuniga pointed out. “Last year we worked her into that left front position. She’s come up big for us. She’s getting stronger and doing what we ask of her.”

Zuniga also acknowledged Thompson’s play up front, who has proven to be an important piece in the team as a freshman.

After fixing their serve issues early in the game, the Lady Cats were able to score on aces, specifically in the 10-point win in the fourth set. But even when Dime Box returned those serves, the passing for the team has been a bright spot, allowing Waelder to take advantage with attacks.

“Most of the time you’ll hear come out of my mouth ‘side out, one pass’ or I’m telling the girls ‘get down on your passes, stay down, don’t pop up,’” Zuniga said. “We work a lot on our passing and the girls are never content with their passing, it’s ‘no coach, hit it at me again, it wasn’t a good enough pass,’ and it’s taken me this long to get them there but I’m glad they’ve reached that point and know what a good pass and what isn’t and they want to keep trying until they get that perfect pass. So the challenge this year to themselves is to have perfect passes, not just average passes.”

Waelder finished out the last set in a tight 25-23 win.

Despite having to play a bit short-handed, the numbers and talent level of the team has allowed Zuniga to field both a varsity and junior varsity team. The JV team didn’t play Tuesday, but Zuniga believes anybody from that squad can step in varsity and have as much success.

“We graduated about eight seniors this year so getting our freshmen some playing time on varsity helps out,” she said. “It gives them experience because they can transfer it over to JV and they can carry that momentum on over to JV and they feel like they can step up on both teams at any time. To be honest with you, any of my girls on JV can bump up to varsity at any time and play well and they mix in very well. I think that’s just part of our team unity that we’ve been working hard on last season and this season.”

Leading the way in kills were both Fields and Montgomery with six kills. Both players also scored on two aces. Moore led the way with six aces. Rangel had four kills while Thompson has two kills and a block. Durst scored on one kill and three aces. Asiuna Ford scored on two aces and Raven Rodriguez scored on one ace.

Waelder takes on La Marque on the road today at 3 p.m. before hosting Austwell-Tivoli Tuesday at 5 p.m.