The Bryan volleyball team wasn’t able to win a set against District 12-6A leader Waco Midway, but the Lady Vikings made the Pantherettes sweat on Tuesday night at Viking Gym.
Midway finished off a 25-17, 25-18, 25-23 victory via a Lady Viking hitting error, one of the few Bryan made in a highly competitive third set.
Midway (29-10, 5-0) took early leads in each of the first two sets and kept Bryan (10-24, 1-4) at bay. The Lady Vikings got off to a good start in the third set with an ace by sophomore Alli Warden and never trailed in building an 11-6 lead, forcing Midway to take its first and only timeout of the match.
Bryan junior Alexis Burton had two kills in the solid start, one thanks to a great dig by senior Emma Hazlett. Junior Carmella Jones added a kill on a dink shot, and senior Kennedy Porter had an ace.
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“Sometimes we lack a little bit of confidence, and then we realize we can compete,” Bryan first-year head coach Kayli Kane said. “And then I think when that switch kind of goes off with our young team, then they go, oh, we can kind of hang with anybody. And that’s kind of what happened in that second set and third set. We realized we can do this.”
Midway rallied to tie the third set behind senior Miriam Williams and sophomore Kenna McKenzie. The outside hitters combined for seven kills to spark a 10-3 run that gave the Pantherettes a 16-14 lead, but the Lady Vikings fought back as the game was tied eight times, the last at 23.
Burton’s solid play included a big kill, and 5-foot-10 senior Alyssa Moore came up with a couple of huge blocks as the Lady Vikings forced Midway into several errors.
“We knew they were going to give [Williams and McKenzie] the ball 90% of the time,” Kane said. “And when we knew we needed a block, we threw Alyssa Moore in, and she did a really good job shutting her down. I think that’s where the momentum swung in that third game.”
Bryan tied the set for the last time on a hitting error by Midway, but Williams’ seventh kill of the game got the Pantherettes to match point, and Bryan was wide on an attempted shot down the alley to tie the set.
“They’re undefeated in district for a reason,” Kane said. “That’s a very solid team, and we’re super young and we’re figuring it out and we’re getting better each and every match. So I’m really proud of the way we competed. It didn’t go our way, but we still made strides in the direction we’re headed.”
Bryan, coming off a sweep of Temple, fell behind 6-1 in the first set, making four straight hitting errors. That was basically the difference as the Lady Vikings played much better the rest of the way but couldn’t string together enough points to challenge for the lead.
Midway took a 6-2 lead in the second set with half the points via Bryan errors. The Pantherettes stretched their lead to 10-3. The Lady Vikings answered with a 4-0 run but didn’t score more than two straight points the rest of the way. Late in the set, senior Zaliayah Richardson hit a well-placed shot for a kill, and Burton had a kill as Bryan tried to stay in the frame.
Bryan showed great balance throughout the match, which has been a theme for the season.
“No one’s kind of been the super star,” Kane said. “It’s been really evenly balanced with spreading the ball, who’s leading in kills, who’s leading in aces, who’s leading in assists. We’re going to keep working, hoping to find that dominant leader on the team.”