By DARIN ALLRED
Register Sports Editor
LINDSAY — The Lady Knights have filled up the trophy cases at Lindsay High School the past few years, but they hope to add more hardware this weekend when the volleyball team competes at the UIL state tournament for the first time in school history.
The No. 1 ranked Lady Knights will open the Class A state tournament Friday at 11 a.m., against No. 3 Bronte (39-5). The other semifinal pits No. 2 ranked Louise (39-4) against No. 4 Normangee (31-10). All matches will be played at Strahan Coliseum on the campus of Texas State University in San Marcos.
For Lindsay, it will be a chance to bring home yet another state championship. In 2007, the Lady Knights basketball, track and cross country teams won state titles. In 2008, the basketball team advanced to the state tournament again, losing in the semifinals. Then last spring, the softball team advanced to their first state tournament.
Three members of this year’s volleyball team (Jessica Thurman, Alyx Ethington and Taylor Atkins) played on that softball team that made school history by advancing to state. A fourth Lady Knight (Jordan Fleitman) is on the cross country team that placed seventh at the state meet this past Saturday and was third in the state last year.
So will the experience these girls have gotten in state competition help the Lady Knights as they play in their first state volleyball tournament?
“I honestly think it will, maybe simply because all these girls are juniors or sophomores and they would tend to be the more nervous ones anyways, but it just so happens that they are the ones with the state competition experience,” Lindsay coach Bridget Anderle said. “I think we will all be somewhat nervous but knowing that they have been in tougher situations will help. I would think that being on the mound at the state softball tournament is one of the toughest situations you can be in, just from my coaching experience. The fact that Jordan has had two years experience at the State cross country meet and ran almost a minute better this year than she did last year, and then steps off of there and onto the limelight of the court and handled it very well. I really think all of these things coming together may help us.”
Fleitman’s journey last weekend was amazing. She played in the regional volleyball semifinals on Friday night in Weatherford, then had to drive to Round Rock and run at the state cross country meet Saturday. After the meet was over, she had to drive back to Weatherford for the regional volleyball championship match.
“It was hard but it was worth it,” the sophomore said. “It was a lot of fun.”
Ethington and Atkins, who were both in the starting lineup for Lindsay at the state softball tournament back in June, each say that experience will make them less nervous about playing on the big stage this weekend.
“It will help me out because I’m not going to be as nervous as I might be if I hadn’t of gone to state softball,” Atkins said.
“You are used to being there and you know what to do and not to be as nervous as you were the first time,” Ethington added. “You have to take the things that went wrong the first time and change those so it helps you be better this time. I think we were a little bit too nervous in softball, because then when we finally settled down we finally started playing.”
So what advice will Ethington, who was the starting right fielder and cleanup batter for the Lady Knights in softball, tell her teammates before Friday’s match?
“I will probably tell them not to be nervous and just treat it like a normal game,” she said. “We just need to do the same things we do every day.”
The Lady Knights have won 22-straight matches. Their last loss was on Sept. 5 to Class 2A Peaster, a team that will also be playing at the state tournament this weekend.
The Lindsay players are excited about the success they have enjoyed the past few years, but they are not shocked.
“Lindsay is Lindsay. We work hard and we try hard and we’re always trying to get better at all times,” Thurman said.
Now the Lady Knights turn their attention to a Bronte team they have already defeated this year. Lindsay finished first in a tournament in Bronte back in August that featured some of the best Class A teams in the state.
But does the fact they have already beaten Bronte once this year make the Lady Knights overconfident? Their coach says no.
“I’m not going to allow them to be overconfident because I know Bronte has improved since then just like us,” Anderle stated. “But I think knowing in the back of our minds that we’ve already beat this team once, that’s going to give us a little bit of an edge. In volleyball there’s going to be ups and downs, there always is in every match. In those times where they (Bronte) scores a couple of points, we may be able to think back and say ‘hey, we’ve been here before.’ I think we may have a little bit of an edge psychologically, but we’re not going to get overconfident.”
Maybe not overconfident, but they are a confident bunch.
“I think we’re going to win it,” Fleitman said. “I think we have a really good chance if we play our game.”
