YOAKUM — Lady Bulldogs volleyball was victorious in a playoff bout Nov. 5 at Yoakum High School with a win over Yorktown High School in three sets by a score of 259, 25-18, 25-23. Flatonia controlled this match for it’s entirety and created enough offense to win convincingly, along with holding strong on the defensive end.
“I think we persevered through a lot of adversity that we had during the second half of district,” said Flatonia head volleyball coach Lauren Hoffman on their success this season. “We’ve practiced a whole bunch. We’ve got one of our major players back in rotation, so that’s helped us out a whole bunch.”
Flatonia sophomore middle hitter Emma Kosler tallied eight kills for the outing and has been an important part for the offense throughout the entire season.
“My mindset is just to put the ball down,” Kosler said. “Since I’m kind of short, it’s kind of hard sometimes to get a lot of kills and all that, but I’ve been working on a lot of plyometrics and stuff. This is my sophomore year, so I don’t want to end the season on a bad note.”
Flatonia surged to a 5-1 lead in the first set on a ball out of bounds from Yorktown. The Lady Wildcats eventually tied it at five on a block, then Flatonia made a block of their own, as well as a few kills and an ace to take an 11-6 lead, forcing Yorktown to call a timeout. Flatonia went on to score seven points in a row on a handful of kills and two aces before securing the set on more kills, winning the set on a kill from senior middle hitter Allie Uzzell at 25-9.
The second set was all Flatonia again as they had a 7-1 advantage after an ace. Yorktown would climb back and make it 9-6 after a ball out of bounds from the Lady Bulldogs, which led to Flatonia gaining their big lead back at 17-10 on a ball in the net from Yorktown and some mistakes to go along with more kills from Flatonia. An illegal hit from the Lady Wildcats put it at 20-13 before another kill from Uzzell and a ball out of bounds from Yorktown, as well as a few more points on kills from Flatonia won them the set 25-18.
The third set was way more evenly matched and Yorktown took their biggest lead at 14-10 after a ball out of bounds from Flatonia, then a ball out of bounds of their own eventually tied it at 14, forcing Yorktown to call a timeout. The remainder of the set was both teams trading points on kills and Flatonia was able to edge a tiny lead at 24-22 on another kill from Uzzell. A serve out of bounds from Flatonia made it 24-23, then a kill from sophomore outside hitter Katelin Sullivan won the Lady Bulldogs the set and match 25-23.
