Ladycats dominate North Side in bi-district action

Editor's note: The original posting of this article referred to "Northwest" rather than "North Side." Those instances have been corrected. We regret the error. We have also added the match stats to the end of the article.

The Aledo Ladycats took the bi-district volleyball championship in commanding fashion, defeating North Side High School 25-3, 25-13, 25-9.

Aledo came out strong early, taking the first two points before North Side got on the board. From there, Aledo ran off a string of 12 points under the serve of Lauren Mack with a combination of strong play at the net and miscues on the part of North Side.

North Side put another point on the board when Aledo had a miscommunication and the ball dropped to the floor. Up 14-2, Aledo added another three points before North Side added their third and last point of the set.

The second set was not the same picture for Aledo, as North Side came to life and took an early 9-4 lead.

“It was just a couple of unforced errors,” head coach Claire Gay said after the match, “not adjusting on the front row as much as we needed them to.”

After that, Aledo put together a run of six straight scores behind the service of Rylee Metts to take a 12-10 lead. Up 14-11, Aledo strung together six more points and finished the second set 25-13.

After that the Ladycats smelled blood and reeled off the first six points of the third set. Up 7-2, Alyssa Gonzales began her serve. On the first play Vivian Parker sent down a kill and Gonzales served an ace to put Aledo up 9-2. The teams traded points, but Aledo was putting up two points at a time and was up 14-7 when Mack began serving and the Ladycats put together a seven-point run to go up 21-7. Another three-point run and the Ladycats were up 23-9 before closing out the set and the match, 25-9.

“We came out ready to play,” Gay said  of the match. “The girls were consistent; we had a long talk about staying focused, playing ahead a couple of plays in their head, thinking about decision making, serving top, playing good defense where we can adjust quickly on our toes.”

With a strong victory, Gay said the team accomplished its goals for the match.

“We definitely took over the game plan that we had in place to play this team. Everybody got it got a chance and got touches on the ball —  that was important. And they got that experience in a playoff setting. And we won one.”

Aledo advances to the Area match and will face the winner of the Midlothian vs Argyle match being played a bit later than the Aledo-North Side match.