Lady Jacket season ends

Posted 11/10/22

The Hughes Springs Lady Mustangs and the Mineola Lady Jackets were about as evenly matched as two teams can be.

The area playoff last Saturday at Sulphur Springs High School between the two sides bore this out.

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Lady Jacket season ends

Posted

The Hughes Springs Lady Mustangs and the Mineola Lady Jackets were about as evenly matched as two teams can be.

The area playoff last Saturday at Sulphur Springs High School between the two sides bore this out. When the five-set match was complete, Hughes Springs edged Mineola 25-21, 22-25, 25-20, 23-25, 15-10.  

To get a sense of the riveting action and high tension at play, consider the action late in the fourth set. Hughes Springs was up 21-15.

They had come out strong in the fourth set and led throughout. If there was a Lady Jacket comeback at hand, it was the time. 

After forcing errors to regain service, Macy Fischer began one of her best service turns of the season. An exceptionally well-placed shot by Olivia Hughes then closed the score to 21-18.

Great hustling defense earned the next two points, and Fischer tied the match with an ace – the final of her 8-point service turn.  

With the season in the balance, Mineola turned to Hughes. She scored with an emphatic kill and a drop shot following a long volley, and the Lady Jackets evened the match at two sets apiece.

Hughes’ effort was even more notable given that she had participated in the state class 3A cross country championships just that morning – in Round Rock.  

The momentum had swung completely to the Mineola side of the gymnasium. But there was a matter of scoring 15 points in the tie-breaker set in order to claim the area title.

Mineola faltered at the start, giving up the first two points. The Lady Mustangs went directly back to their strength: kill shots from the left wing.

After one of those slams off the left wing made the score 9-4, Mineola Coach TaShara Stephens signaled for a time-out.  

The Lady Jackets rattled off six straight points coming out of that time-out, with Mylee Fischer contributing a kill from an overpass and a block to take the lead. Hughes Springs paused the action with the Lady Jackets leading by a single point.

Hughes Springs took the final six points and the area championship. They did it with two kills off of partial blocks by the Lady Jackets and two scores from the left wing – one a cross court smash.

As emotionally-charged as that fourth-set comeback was for the Lady Jackets, the loss of the tie-breaker fell just as hard.

In addition to Mylee Fischer and Olivia Hughes, Jocelyn Whitehead had a stand-out performance in the area final.  

In retrospect, the season was one of the best in Mineola memory, and the team had grown closer as the season progressed. With the Hughes Springs community building back from tornado damage, maybe their win was meant to be. 

Regardless, the match was an amazing end to an amazing season.