From the Temple Daily Telegram
By Tim Waits
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Behind a combined 27 kills from Kaitlyn Hutchins and Gabby Jones, the Lady Broncos (33-11) dispatched Midlothian and advanced to face Dallas White or West Mesquite later this week.
“To say I’m proud is an understatement,” Lake Belton head coach Allison Waits said. “This was the most gelled we’ve been as a team. We couldn’t have been more together than that.”
Midlothian (35-9) came into the night having won 15 of its last 16 matches, including a clean sweep in District 15-5A. The Lady Broncos had an answer, though, in three highly contested sets.
Down the stretch of the third and final set, the Pantherettes took a 20-17 advantage and appeared to be on the verge of extending the match.
Lake Belton ran off six straight points to flip the lead behind two Jones kills sandwiched around a Natalie Maldonado ace, a MyKenna Johnston block, an Ava Wood tip and Midlothian error.
Highly touted Pantherettes hitter McKenzie Berg ended the streak with a kill, but the teams traded points before Hutchins ended it with her match-high 16th kill.
“We have all the confidence in the world in each other,” said Hutchins, a junior. “I’m so happy we get to experience this. We are very cohesive, very tight.
“They had good shots, but it’s volleyball. People are going to make good plays. You just roll the ball back and answer them.”
Each set was similar in nature, with numerous ties and lead changes. The four-point difference at the end was the biggest spread.
Lake Belton went ahead 23-19 in the opener on the strength of consecutive blocks by Johnston, Wood and Jones. The Lady Broncos’ final two points came on kills from Wood and Jones for the 1-0 match lead.
The teams were tied 10 times in the second set, the last of which came at 19-all on a kill by Midlothian’s Kameron Rector.
Hutchins put the Lady Broncos back on top with a kill followed by two Pantherettes errors. At 22-21, Hutchins put down another kill and a block, and a kill from Johnston gave Lake a 2-0 match lead.
Senior libero Hanna Ward led Lake Belton with 14 digs as the Lady Broncos handled the barrage from Midlothian.
“It was just a matter of staying ready on defense,” Ward said. “Everybody was talking and that helped us to get the ball back up.”
The victory was sweet for Jones, who was out with an injury for a few weeks in her last season. The Lady Broncos were eliminated by Montgomery Lake Creek in the bi-district round last year.
“After going out in the first round, we wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again,” Jones said. “When we got to (the 20-point mark), everybody was chasing to get that last point.”
