By Jon Brooks, Temple Daily Telegram--

Both Belton ISD volleyball teams are headed toward likely playoff bids in the coming two weeks. Belton and Lake Belton still had plenty to play for in the finale of their season series Friday night at Bronco Gym, however.

The Lady Tigers were looking to vault into a first-place tie with the hosting Lady Broncos, who instead aimed to put two matches between them and their rivals.

Behind a match-high 18 kills from Kaitlyn Hutchins and 23 assists from Madi Bingham, Lake did just that by controlling each set but the second en route to posting a 25-11, 22-25, 25-20, 25-17 District 16-5A victory.

“I think all four sets we came out with high energy from the jump, so I was really happy with that,” said Lake Belton head coach Allison Waits, whose team stayed unbeaten in league play with its sixth straight win. “And I was also happy where we did have some areas lacking, I think our other teammates really stepped up and made up for that difference, so I was glad to see that.”

The Lady Broncos (24-12, 6-0) led from start to finish in each set but the second while getting kills from nine players overall.

Bingham added 10 kills to her ledger to make for a double-double, while Ava Wood followed with six and Makinzi Johnson notched five. Sophomore Brylee Renegar’s nine kills paced visiting Belton (26-12, 4-2), which carried a two-game lead over three district teams tied for third place heading into Friday’s action.

“I think we did a good job of putting pressure on them with our effort and our intensity on the court,” said Belton head coach Haleigh Johnson, whose team was swept by the Lady Broncos in their initial meeting to open league play Sept. 23. “The consistency is something we’ve struggled with all season long but they did a good job of playing together and not giving up. Despite the loss, I was very proud of the way the girls handled themselves.”

Looking to close out the match in the fourth set, Lake Belton used a 5-0 run to start and increased its edge to 9-2 with back-to-back Thia Allison blocks. From there, Belton got only as close as five points following a Renegar putaway early in the stanza.

Keileigh Krueger eventually found Bingham for the match’s final point with a set that the senior drove down the right line to settle the decision.

“I feel like a few things that helped us tonight was our serve receive, and I feel like that’s an area we’ve struggled in the past, so we’ve been honing in on that during practice. And moving the ball around when our hitters were hitting was a huge success for us,” said the senior Krueger, whose Lady Broncos will travel to Killeen Ellison on Tuesday as the regular season enters its final two weeks.

Lake also never trailed in the third set to respond to Belton after the Lady Tigers stormed back in the second set to even things at 1-all.

The Lady Broncos went up as much as 12-4 early in set three then pushed out to an 18-9 gap after Belton clawed back to within four.

Wood dropped three kills in the set, including the clincher after the Lady Tigers fought back to 23-19 following a CJ Stites kill off a feed from Kelsey Morrow. Stites followed Renegar’s nine kills with six for Belton, which also got five kills from Kaitlyn McCracken.

Wood later delivered a hard shot that went untouched through the middle of Belton’s defense off a nice set from Natalia Partida to close the 25-20 win and claim the 2-1 advantage.

“Our passing was really phenomenal, but our defense was struggling and our hitting was struggling, so we made some adjustments there and I thought they did a great job of doing that,” Waits said of Lake’s changes following the second set.

After struggling to find its hitting form, which led to a big deficit right off the bat in the opening frame, the Lady Tigers changed their fortunes in set two when they stayed in front most of the way before holding off a late Lake Belton charge.

Renegar tallied four kills and McCracken banged down three in the stanza, helping Belton turn back Lake after the Lady Broncos claimed an 18-16 lead following a hard Hutchins hit.

Belton then used a 5-1 spurt to create a 21-19 lead when McCracken poked home a loose ball at the net and the Lady Tigers stayed ahead by at least two the rest of the way.

Renegar’s soft tip down the left side settled the 25-22 tally to even the match.

“We were just playing as a unit, I feel like, and we did a good job of executing offensively — when the ball was on our side, we just did a better job of executing in that set,” said Johnson, whose team hosts Waco University on Tuesday.