Varsity Volleyball sealed the program sweep at Belton to kick off district 1-0! Read the details below-
From the Temple Daily Telegram by Tim Waits--
For all the noise and the crowd that an intra-school district rivalry match can muster, even more was on the line Tuesday night when Belton and Lake Belton both wanted to get a leg up in the District 16-5A race.
It was Lake Belton that got what it was looking for with a 25-13, 25-18, 25-19 victory over Belton at Tiger Gym.
The Lady Broncos, winners of nine of their last 10 matches, improved to 19-12 on the year. The Lady Tigers slipped to 22-11.
“I’m proud of everything we were doing,” Lake Belton head coach Allison Waits said. “This was one of our best team efforts we’ve had this season.”
Kaitlyn Hutchins paced the Lady Broncos with 10 kills, followed by Madi Bingham with nine and Abbi Jones with seven. Middle blocker Ava Wood produced seven blocks for Lake.
“My setters really helped me,” said Jones, a sophomore. “They gave me good sets. If I see an opening while I’m in midair, I’ll go for it.”
The sets became closer throughout the match, but Lady Tigers couldn’t get over the hump.
“The first and second sets were rough,” Belton head coach Haleigh Johnson said. “But we got better as the match went on, and you want to finish better than you started.”
The final set was tied at 11-all after a kill by Belton’s CJ Stites. Lake answered with a Hutchins kill and a Kruz Smith ace as part of a three-point run.
Belton responded with a kill and a block from Lyza LeBlanc to draw within one but didn’t get any closer.
Kills from Hutchins and a Thai Allison block helped the Lady Broncos get separation. Down the stretch, Lake libero Keileigh Krueger — who led with 18 digs — provided an ace to go with a Bingham kill and a Wood block. Wood got the Lady Broncos to match point with a kill, and Nia Grayson finished it off for the Lady Broncos.
In the opening set, Lake went on scoring streaks to increase its lead, including seven straight on Krueger’s service and six on Bingham’s serve.
“We’ve got to get better on our serve receive (going forward),” Johnson said. “We knew they were a good serving team.”
Belton will travel to Waco to face University on Friday, when Lake Belton hosts Killeen Ellison.
