Court-ing Surprises -- Monahans Stuns, Then Gets Stunned
   By Chris Gove, Staff Writer  - The Odessa American, September 21, 2005

Not long after Monahans High School's volleyball team picked up its biggest victory of the season Tuesday, it became the same thing for another opponent.

An evening of contrasts and thrilling volleyball treated the defending Class 3A state champions kindly when they battled for a 25-17, 25-22, 21-25, 22-25, 15-12 victory against Lubbock Coronado in the Jerry Larned Sports Complex.

Coronado, coming off an appearance in the Class 5A state championship match last season, had handed Monahans its lone loss of the season in the semifinals of San Angelo's Nita Vannoy Invitational in late August.

"One of our goals was to go undefeated this season," Monahans senior middle blocker Brittany Hughes said, "so we were looking for revenge against Coronado since they had given us our only loss."

The Lady Loboes didn't get much of a chance to celebrate the victory since they had to play Odessa High just 20 minutes later.  About two hours later, any celebration from the Coronado victory was subdued after OHS rallied for a 14-25, 15-25, 25-21, 25-23, 15-12 upset victory.

Odessa High (19-6) got 20 kills from Charlsye Gregory, 19 digs from Rachel Mendoza, four solo blocks from Meagan Saulsbury and four aces from Kylie Cowan to offset 17 kills from Hughes and 15 from Alison Miller to lead Monahans.

"It's very exciting for the kids," OHS head coach Linda McMillan said. "We looked scared in Game 1. Game 2 was a little better and in game 3, it was like, 'Hey, let's play.'  We became more and more aggressive as the match went on.  I'm very excited for our kids because we did some very good things."

At the end of the day, both matches counted only in non-district standings, but the confidence Monahans gained in its victory against Coronado and OHS gained by beating Monahans could go a long way down the road.

Monahans has very realistic goals of winning a second consecutive Class 3A state title and has not lost to a District 3-5A opponent in more than a year, which is a feather for OHS as it tries to battle and earn a second consecutive trip to the playoffs.

"It's a learning experience," Monahans head coach Patty Dominguez said.  "Against Coronado we were attacking the whole time and that's what we did the first two games against OHS.  Then in the last three we started playing safe -- plus our legs were gone."

Other than the 20-minute break between matches, Monahans was on court for about four consecutive hours while facing both the Mustangs and Bronchos.

In the victory against Coronado, Monahans controlled the first two games but could not pull off a sweep as Coronado jumped out to big leads in both Games 3 and 4.  Monahans came close to coming back each occasion, but could not quite finish the deal and had to go five.

At that point, Coronado looked like it was going to pull off a thrilling comeback, win itself as it lead 4-2, 7-6 and 12-11 in game 5.

But Monahans showed its strength by closing out the last four points, including two kills by Hughes and a block from Hughes and Baily Marcum that won the match and set off a jubilant celebration.

Hughes had 25 kills and 24 digs, Alison Miller had 15 kills and Catherine Cutbirth had 10 kills and 19 digs to help lead the victory.  Also, Marcum had 21 digs.

"We let them be the aggressor and take care of the final game instead of us stepping up and taking care of our business," said Coronado head coach Jennifer Gaona, who got 17 kills from Brooke Smith and 51 assists from Robyn Smith.  "Monahans is a great place to travel to because they love volleyball and they have a great team."

Monahans showed those traits again while roaring to the two-game lead against Odessa High.

This time, though, the task was too great to pull off a five-game victory.

"We didn't play as well defensively as we did against Coronado," Monahans senior setter Candace Swarb said.  "We were sitting back on our heels and couldn't move as fast.  We just got fatigued and couldn't finish."

McMillan praised her team for its fight as it rallied from a two-game hole for the second time in three matches -- after getting blown out in a three-game sweep by San Angelo Central about two weeks ago.

"We didn't have any offense in Games 1 and 2," said McMillan whose team plays at Abilene High on Saturday.  "We played on our heels and they were killing us.  In Games 3 and 4, we were much more aggressive and hit more balls."