SCHULENBURG — The Schulenburg High School volleyball team hosted a scrimmage August 4 at Shorthorns Gym that included teams such as Brazos, Halletsville, and La Grange. The basketball court was separated into two halves with volleyball courts and each team played 25 minute scrimmages, then would switch to their corresponding court to play a different team.
Schulenburg first battled with Brazos and as no score was kept, it was apparent that Schulenburg had the upper hand in the match. “We have a different group out here, so I don’t think we say ‘oh, well we did this last year’. This is the group we have right now. Let’s see what we can do with them,” said Schulenburg head volleyball coach Donald Zapalac on building from last year’s state championship run.
“I think we’re gonna try to be a lot more versatile this year. We’re gonna run a lot more combo plays and I think the girls are really enjoying that right now. It’s really the first time we started throwing them out there today, so it’s new to them. They’re seeing some things there. I think that if we can serve tough and our serve-receive game is strong, I think our hitters are gonna take control of the game. As the day wore on, I think we kind of did a lot of that today. When our passing was on spot, we were able to run a lot of the combo plays we want to run and I think it’s gonna keep the other defenses off balance.”
Lady Horns senior libero Kieryn Adams was an essential part to last year’s state tournament bid and will serve the same kind of role in ’23. “It’s just like a whole different leadership role,” Adams said. “Everything means so much more being our last year. All the girls have been putting a lot of work in and doing what it takes to get back to that level again.”
Brazos has a very new look this year with graduating a bunch of seniors last year, but is ready to take on the challenge. “We are trying to figure out what works best with our offense,” said Brazos head volleyball coach Amanda Hatton. “We have completely different personnel playing in different places. We have all the pieces, we just have to put them together.”
Schulenburg scored the first three points of the match, all on aces from Adams. The Lady Horns took control early until Brazos was able to respond with with a few points. After an ace and two more kills from Schulenburg senior outside hitter Jessalyn Gipson, Brazos went on a nice roll that included two aces in a row. The Lady Horns then added a couple blocks after another kill from Brazos, where even without an actual score, Schulenburg visibly won the overall contest in the 25 minute span.
