Plano East junior Megan Nguyen sets up a Lady Panthers teammate for a hitting attempt during Tuesday’s home match against Allen. The Lady Panthers shrugged off a tough end to the first set to defeat the Lady Eagles in four sets. Photo by Tina Lopez / C&S Media
By David Wolman
MURPHY – Playing in matches on the final day of the regular season with something to play for is part of the vision that Sarah Perez had for the Plano East volleyball team when she was hired as head coach two years ago.
Last year, Plano East earned their first district championship in program history after finishing as the co-champion of District 6-6A with Flower Mound. A district title wasn’t on the line Tuesday evening but the victor of the match between Plano East and Allen would not only clinch second place in revamped District 6-6A but also earn the No. 1 seed for the Class 6A-Div. I playoffs from their district.
Plano East embraced the moment.
The Lady Panthers shook off a sluggish end to the first set and rallied for a 24-26, 25-22, 25-13, 25-13 victory.
“It’s awesome,” Perez said. “Obviously, we would have liked to finish No.1, but it’s nice to see that we’re building our program and our culture and building teams that can compete for playoffs. It’s my third year here, and I feel like that we’re in a rhythm now.”
Plano East (31-8 overall, 14-3 district) will play former district rival Lewisville in a bi-district playoff next week at a time and location yet to be determined.
Before Plano East could celebrate another milestone win in what has been a huge turnaround for the program over the last three seasons, the Lady Panthers were forced to regroup after being unable to slam the door on the visiting Lady Eagles to end the opening set.
Junior Simone Heard and Allen freshman phenom Maya Ogbogu traded blows throughout the contest with both star players hitting the ball with force at times. Heard did a lot of her damage with her approach to the 10-foot line. The Plano East junior delivered another missile that she hit straight through the middle of Allen’s defense to give Plano East a 24-19 lead.
But when it appeared that the Lady Panthers were going to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five bout, the Lady Eagles scored seven straight points to stun Plano East, thanks in part to some tough serving by senior Bre Perez. Perez had an ace to give Allen a 25-24 advantage before a Plano East attack error ended the frame.
“We were just a little chaotic,” Perez said. “We had to play our setter front row (for the last several points). We couldn’t really gather our thoughts. We knew that we should’ve taken that first set and we just took that momentum back and rolled it into set two.”
Plano East faced similar resistance from Allen at the end of the second set, but this time around, the Lady Panthers didn’t allow the Lady Eagles to complete another comeback.
After Plano East took a 20-15 lead following a block by sophomore Leyna Anderson, Allen took advantage of a few errors by the Lady Panthers to climb to within 23-22. But Plano East remained calm. The Lady Panthers scored the final two points of the set, with a kill by Heard notching the set-two win for Plano East.
“I feel like our energy picked up a lot,” Heard said. “Once we have good energy, we play a lot better.”
The final two sets were dominated by Plano East.
Anderson spearheaded an impressive stretch of blocking for the Lady Panthers. She recorded three blocks against Obgogu over a span of four points early in the third set and later added a fourth block to give her team a 9-5 lead. Not only did Anderson turn a stellar effort on defense, but also notched several timely kills throughout the match.
“She showed up to play today, and that’s what I said to her,” Perez said. “She showed up for us big-time today. She’s been here a couple of months. She made a big difference tonight.”
Now it’s on to the playoffs, where Plano East will look to build on last year’s historic run to the regional quarterfinals.
“Last year, our seniors were really good, and they were a big factor,” Heard said. “This year, I feel like that the team is stepping up as a whole.”
0 Comments