By DARIN ALLRED

Register Sports Editor



SAN MARCOS — The Lindsay Lady Knights talked all week about treating their first-ever trip to the state volleyball tournament as just another match.

Easier said than done.

The No. 1 ranked Lady Knights looked nervous and tentative as they fell to the Bronte Lady Longhorns 11-25, 22-25, 25-22, 13-25 in the Class A semifinals Friday at Texas State University in San Marcos.

Lindsay finished the season with a record of 35-11. Bronte (40-5) faced Louise (40-10) for the state championship Saturday.

While Lindsay was making their first trip to the state tournament, Bronte has been at the tournament 12 times since 1974 and has won five state titles. The inexperience seemed to show as the Lady Knights committed 20 attack errors and seven service errors.

“We didn’t play. We were so nervous,” Lindsay senior setter Brenna Mlinar said. “We were like six frightened girls on the court instead of six experienced volleyball players that deserved to be here.”

“We’ve been in situations like going to state and a couple of those girls had gone to state in softball, but once you get down here and have to face the crowd and the other team’s momentum, we just didn’t handle that very well,” Lady Knight coach Bridget Anderle added. “And Bronte’s got a very good team. That number nine (Chelsea Cook) took advantage of every mistake.”

Cook finished with 15 kills and 14 digs to lead the Lady Longhorns.

Lindsay took a 2-0 lead in the first game thanks to an ace by Mlinar on the very first point of the match. Taylor Atkins later had a kill and an ace as the Lady Knights went up 5-1. But three straight service points from Cook (including an ace), another ace by Jill Scott and four kills from Kaycee Baker helped Bronte take a 10-7 advantage.

Lindsay finally got a sideout on a kill by Kaylee Murphree that made it 10-8, but Bronte returned the favor with a sideout and started to put the game away. Ashley Royall served five-straight points including an ace. After the teams traded sideouts, Rachel Deller served six in a row including two aces and three kills from Cook to make it 23-9.

“Throughout the whole season, if we would get down, that would just give us the momentum because we would get fire in us and just go with it,” Murphree said. “Today, it just seemed that nothing was going our way. When we would get a good hit or block, we would be pumped about it, but we just couldn’t get on a run.”

The Lady Knights got a pair of points on a kill and a block by Kristin Martin, but Bronte still took game one 25-11.

Game two was close throughout. After falling behind 2-0, Lindsay came back with two straight aces by Atkins to go up 3-2. They had a 7-6 lead after a service point from Jessica Thurman, but again the Lady Longhorns used the play of Cook and Kimber Lee at the net to go up 14-12.

When Thurman came back around the rotation to serve, the senior tallied three straight points including an ace to put the Lady Knights ahead 16-14.

Kills by Murphree and Jordan Fleitman along with an ace by Atkins helped Lindsay go up 21-19, but they couldn’t close things out. Cook served three points and Baker added two more kills as Bronte came from behind for a 25-22 win to take a commanding 2-0 set lead.

Lindsay played their best ball in the third set and took advantage of several errors from Bronte. Mlinar started things off again with an ace and Lindsay had an early 4-1 lead. The teams traded service errors until Cook was able to serve up back-to-back aces to tie the game 5-5.

Murphree then had two strong hits at the net for kills to make it 7-6 Lindsay. Alyx Ethington then served six-straight points that included kills from Murphree, Mlinar and Atkins to put the Lady Knights ahead 13-6.

Bronte started to chip away. Chelsea Meek served four points and Jill Scott added two as the Lady Longhorns battled back to tie the score at 18-18. They later took a 20-19 lead, but a kill by Murphree followed by a Murphree service ace put Lindsay up for good. A kill by Martin closed out the game and gave Lindsay the 25-22 win to force game four.

The Lady Knights had an early 2-1 lead in the fourth game on consecutive kills by Martin, but three points from Lee and two from Scott plus the play of Cook and Baker at the net put Bronte ahead 9-4.

Back-to-back kills by Murphree and a service point by Ethington brought Lindsay within three (9-6), but that would prove to be as close as they would get.

Deller served two points and Cook had three kills and two aces as the Lady Longhorns went up 22-11. Lindsay got within 10 on a Murphree kill, but Bronte was able to serve out the match and move into the state championship round.

In addition to Cook’s 15 kills, Baker added 13 and Lee had 9. Meek dished up 30 assists.

For Lindsay, Murphree had 13 kills and Martin added 10. Mlinar finished with 24 assists, while Martin, Atkins and Mlinar all had 10 digs.

Making the loss even harder to take was the fact that Lindsay had defeated Bronte earlier this season, but Coach Anderle said her team Friday didn’t resemble that one that won that match earlier in the year.

“We weren’t near as aggressive as we were the first time,” she said. “They (Bronte) got us on our heels, even though we were up in game one, up in game two and up in game three. We did not continue to fight like we normally do. We struggled in serve-receive and couldn’t get the ball to the target, which led to some non-aggressive play on our part. We did not play with intensity.”

The loss marked the final match for four Lindsay seniors: Jessica Thurman, Kaylee Murphree, Brenna Mlinar and Kristin Martin. While they didn’t realize their goal of bringing home the state title, their coach says they set the bar high for future Lady Knight teams.

“They have been outstanding leaders,” Anderle said. “They have totally set a very good example for these younger kids to follow. Between their leadership as far as talking on the court and their work ethic, it’s been tremendous. I can’t say enough about that. They really put their heart and soul into this. Bronte deserved to win because they beat us, but we deserved to be here. Too bad we couldn’t have brought our A-game and gave them a good match because these seniors have it in them. It just didn’t come together for us today.”