San Marcos’s 3-2 (25-18, 25-22, 13-25, 25-27, 15-13) win over Buda Hays on Tuesday was a struggle.
The Lady Rattlers were swept 3-0 by Austin High at home on Oct. 9 in one of their worst performances of the season. Head coach Jared Te’o was looking forward to getting the team back in the gym. Instead, San Marcos athletic director John Walsh announced the program was being placed in a two-week quarantine “out of an abundance of caution,” postponing four matches and all practices.
“I think the biggest thing was just, we were starting to hit a stride as a team and we hit a road bump,” Te’o said. “And I thought it would be really good for our character to have lost to Austin as bad as we did and come back and work through it. And as soon as we lost, we were out for two weeks.”
Te’o reached out to multiple college coaches about how to keep his players engaged during the break. Two of the coaches he spoke with, Texas State’s Sean Huiet and Keith Anderson, went through a two-week gap without competition of their own after seeing six matches get postponed this month.
Te’o locked in on Hays, studying the team’s tendencies and sharing what he learned with his players. But there was only so much San Marcos could do without seeing each other in person.
“It was rough,” senior libero Julia Antu said. “Like, I know some of the girls, emotionally, it was hard being at home and not socializing. But we came back and we worked hard on Saturday and Monday, so we were kind of prepared for (Tuesday).”
Still, the Lady Rattlers (6-4, 4-1 district) showed no signs of rust against Hays (6-8, 3-6). The hosts opened with two set wins to begin the match, 25-19 and 25-22. Te’o was pleased with the way his team served, scoring five aces in the first frame and another two in the second. It helped to keep Hays senior middle hitter Trista Strasser, a 6-foot-4 Missouri commit, out of system.
But Strasser began heating up in the third set, handing San Marcos its first loss, 25-13, the largest margin of the match. The Lady Rattlers rebounded, pulling ahead 20-11 in the fourth set, but Hays pulled off a comeback by tying it at 23-23 and blocking junior outside hitter Maggie Walsh on the last point of the set to take the 28-26 win and tie the match back up at 2-2.
“I think Ashley (Davis) at Hays, the head coach, she’s a great coach. And I think I have a lot of respect for her and she really trains her girls well to fight and have some grit,” Te’o said. “I told (the players), though, (Hays is) doing exactly what we thought they would do. That was so frustrating. Their tendencies — we had two weeks off, two weeks to watch film — they did exactly what we thought they would and we didn’t make the adjustments.”
Maggie powered the purple and white through the final set, picking up five kills and dishing out one assist in the frame. The hosts fell behind 5-1 early, forcing Te’o to call timeout, but regrouped to close out the set on a 14-8 run. Sophomore setter Ruby Gordon set Maggie up for a kill on the left side of the court on the final play of the match, earning the 15-13 set win and 3-2 match victory.
FINAL: San Marcos 3, Buda Hays 2
— Drew King (@drewking0222) October 28, 2020
The Lady Rattlers take the final set of the night, 15-13 @smdrsports #txhsvb pic.twitter.com/75EUDEuIqH
“(It feels) really good, especially since we’re kind of like rivals. You know, it was really good,” Antu said. “And plus, my friends are on that team, so it was exciting.”
San Marcos is now 3-0 in five-set matches and will face off with Austin Akins (2-9, 1-7) on the road Friday at 6:30 p.m. The Lady Rattlers will then begin their make-up matches on Saturday, hosting Austin Bowie (6-6, 4-4) at noon inside the Snake Pit then traveling to Del Valle (0-8, 0-8) for a 4 p.m. meeting.
Te’o said all he cares about at this point is seeing his players execute a game plan.
“I think these kids want things to be dramatic,” Te’o said. “And I think we’ve gone to five (sets) three times now. I don’t know why they want to. We went to five with Hays the exact same way (on Oct. 2), we went up two, down two. They’re gonna drive me into an early grave, but I am proud of them for finding a way.”
