The Aubrey Lady Chaparrals volleyball team reeled off their 15th win in a row and their fourth consecutive district win, sweeping the Frisco Panther Creek Lady Panthers 3-0 on Sept. 19.
The Lady Panthers kept it close in the first set, but the Lady Chaps held on to win the opening period of play, 26-24, before pulling away in the last two sets by a combined score of 50-29.
“Panther Creek is super athletic, and they’re a good offensive team, but we did a really good job trying to match that,” Aubrey head volleyball coach Whitney Marriott said. “Both of our middles had a really good game, and Chloe did a great job on the outside moving the ball around. We also did a good job of adjusting after that first set, and then our defense really started flying around and picking up a lot of balls, and that allowed us to just keep things going.”
The two squads traded points in the opening period, with Aubrey holding the advantage and finding themselves up 12-11 midway through the first set.
The Lady Chaps started to pull away, building a four-point lead, but the Lady Panthers came roaring back, tying the score at 22.
Aubrey and Panther Creek continued to trade blows to close the first, with the Lady Chaps digging out the win 26-24.
The scrappy Lady Panthers continued to fight in the second set, but the Lady Chaps got on a roll, pulling away to win the set by 10 points, 25-15.
The third set was all Aubrey, with the Lady Chaps winning 25-14.
“Panther Creek is a tough program to play because they’re never just going to roll over,” Marriott said. “Anytime they had an answer and came back, I thought we did a really good job of not allowing them to just go on runs. At the beginning of the third set we allowed them to get some momentum back, but then we did a really good job of getting back in control and staying in control.”
Setter Baylee Hampton directed the Lady Chaps’ offense, dishing out 33 assists and adding 14 digs.
Hampton credited her team’s offensive performance to adjustments that allowed Aubrey to exploit holes in Panther Creek’s defense.
“We are used to setting to the middles, and I think they expected that from watching us a lot, so spreading the ball to the outsides in pins and shooting it out there a lot faster really helped today,” she said.
Lady Chaps middle Shae Ward led Aubrey with 17 kills and 4 blocks, followed by outside Chloe Miller and Kylie Miller, who both had 10 kills.
Defensive specialists Addy Cagle and Emma Conley tied for the team lead in digs with 19, followed by 17 digs from Jentry Runion.
Chloe said the Lady Chaps’ chemistry is another reason for their success.
“We come into practice every day, and we hold each other accountable, and I think that’s a big reason why our offense is flowing really well,” Chloe said. “Also, Baylee, I and our other outside [Libby Collins] put in some extra work this weekend. We had a private practice and were able to get our sets and our connections down, and I think that played a big part in tonight and how the offense was rolling.”
The win brings Aubrey’s record to 31-2, but Marriott said the Lady Chaps are focused on continuing to find ways to improve.
“These kids have really high goals, and they keep trying to build off of that,” she said. “They’ve done a good job of looking at games where they struggled and really analyzing why they weren’t successful and then trying to figure out ways to prevent that. This team is not settling for where they are, and they’re constantly trying to grow and learn, especially some of our young kids, and our upperclassmen and leaders have done a really good job helping their young teammates grow and learn.”
