Waelder Lady Cats host senior night, fall in three sets

WAELDER — With just one home game left on the season, the young lady Wildcats celebrated senior night, giving props to Yasmin Porter, their lone senior of the season.

Even as they held tough against the Flatonia Lady Dogs, Waelder would lose in three sets, (25-16, 25-9, 25-7), ending their district season winless.

“We started off pretty strong in the beginning,” Waelder head coach Carrie York said, “and again our serve receive got us. We struggled with serve receive all year.”

A little over a third of Flatonia’s points came from aces in Tuesday’s bout, with 12 coming in the last set.

Waelder was down big in the first set with Flatonia’s biggest lead coming off a kill by senior outside hitter Fernanda Torres to go up 19-8. But the Lady Cats tightened their play, going on a 6-0 streak to cut the lead to 19-14 before the Lady Dogs had to call a timeout.

The Lady Cats took advantage of a few violations by Flatonia as well as scored on a block from Honesty Fields and an ace by Savanna Ewing, both freshmen.

“The blocks are important,” York said, “you get that block it carries your momentum.”

Waelder would ultimately lose the set 25-16.

Fields got another block in the second set to help Waelder get a vital point early on. Porter also ended the night with a block of her own.

As for kills, though they were tough to get, Waelder did get a couple in that first set, with one coming in from Fields and another from Brejhai Montgomery.

“Hitting, we get our hits here and there,” York noted. “I think that [will] keep us going if we can continue to hit and have blocks and it all starts again with a good pass.”

But those good passes were few and far between due to the Lady Cats’ struggles on the serve receive.

York noted that the better their serve receive is, the better the passes and setups to kill which will lead to opportunities for attacks.

“We have the [attackers] to do it,” she said, “and again, we struggle with the serve receive and that’s what’s killing us right now.”

Waelder’s struggles continued throughout the game as Flatonia’s aces began to increase, leading to the 25-9 second set loss and 25-7 third set loss.

Although Waelder finished winless in district at the bottom of the table, due to UIL rules, they automatically advance to the 1A classification playoffs. Their first game is Monday against Fayetteville, a team they’ve previously lost in three sets to in late August. Nonetheless, York and her squad is excited and is ready to hopefully extend the season a bit.

“[It’s] just a chance to go a little further,” she said, “make the season a little longer.”

Waelder plays against Fayetteville Monday in the bidistrict round at Flatonia, with a scheduled start time of 7:30 p.m.