Plano East junior Megan Nguyen gets one hand on the ball for a dig during the Lady Panthers’ 3-0 road win over McKinney on Tuesday. Photo by Andy Redmond / C&S Media
By David Wolman
MCKINNEY — For the second time in less than a week, an opponent tried its hardest to prevent the Plano East volleyball team from winning a match in three sets.
After Plano East outlasted Plano 25-19, 25-18, 27-25 last Friday, the Lady Panthers struggled to finish off McKinney on Tuesday.
Staring at the real possibility of having to play a fourth set, Plano East turned to its top two offensive players to stall McKinney’s momentum.
Senior outside hitter Simone Heard recorded back-to-back kills to rally the Lady Panthers into the lead and senior outside hitter Marisabelle Sias finished off a 3-0 win (25-14, 25-18, 25-23) after she hit the ball hard through the arms of a Lionettes blocker for a kill.
“We got a little too comfortable, started going through the motions a little too much,” head coach Sarah Perez said. “We had a conversation and I said to them, ‘This is your game, you’ve got to take it.’ They did just that.”
Plano East came out the aggressor and didn’t trail until the third set.
In the first set, the Lionettes got as close as 9-7 after a kill by junior Emerie McDonald, but the Lady Panthers’ defense, passing and hitting was just in too good of a rhythm.
Plano East finished the first set on a 16-7 run with Heard punctuating a strong finish by the Lady Panthers with her fifth kill of the match.
Heard, a Georgia Tech commit, finished the night with 17 kills. But what pleased Perez the most about her team’s efforts was secondary offense. Heard and Sias (12 kills vs. McKinney) have been a big source of offense this season, but other players on the team have stepped up and provided big swings for Plano East.
Freshman Kyla Slaughter (four kills), sophomore Jaiden Boutte (two kills), junior Leyna Anderson (seven kills) and junior Alanna Thomas all rose up to the occasion Tuesday, highlighting how much firepower that Plano East has in its offensive arsenal.
“We’ve been talking all season about needing to utilize everyone and for everybody to play their role,” Perez said. “Those young girls are starting to take ownership of their role, and that’s so amazing to see because we can move the ball around better and have an offensive weapon everywhere. I’m proud of them. We’re learning and we’re growing and getting better every game.”
Plano East continued to fire away in the third set but McKinney dug out just every ball that the Lady Panthers hit while dishing out some hard hits of its own.
McKinney took its first lead of the night after senior Ayanna Henry notched a kill on the first point. The Lionettes fell behind a short time later but continued to put the pressure on the Lady Panthers. McKinney led 22-20 on a hitting error by Plano East, but the Lady Panthers regrouped just in time and proceeded to complete the sweep of the Lionettes.
Plano East (22-8, 6-2) concluded the first half of district play with five straight wins, cementing itself as one of the top four teams in District 6-6A, along with Plano West (19-4, 7-1), Plano (22-7, 6-2) and Allen (26-5, 5-2).
“I don’t want to jinx myself, but I feel that we’re finally coming into our identity as a team,” Perez said. “We’re finally owning who we are and what we’re playing for.”
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