Wylie junior Julia Hudgins and the Lady Pirates’ volleyball team saw their season come to an end Monday night after a 3-0 loss to Duncanville in the area round of the Class 6A Division I playoffs at Forney High School. Photo by Tina Lopez / C&S Media
By David Wolman
FORNEY — After Duncanville defeated Wylie by 14 points in the second set of Monday’s Class 6A Division I area-round matchup to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five match, Lady Pirates head coach Sherry Olivares spoke at length to her team.
Olivares normally lets her players converse with each other to work through any rough stretch of play. But after watching her Lady Pirates struggle to handle the Pantherettes’ athleticism and rock-solid defense, Olivares used the timeout between the second and third sets to implore that the battle is far from over.
Olivares’ message was well received as Wylie jumped out to a six-point lead in the third set. However, the Lady Pirates were unable to build on their advantage. The Pantherettes rallied with a 19-9 run and went on to polish off a 3-0 sweep of the Lady Pirates, 25-18, 25-11, 25-19, on Monday evening at Forney High School.
Wylie had its chances. The Lady Pirates had momentum after scoring three straight points to tie the score at 17-17 in the first set after the Pantherettes tipped the ball into the net. s.
Unfortunately, the Lady Pirates were unable to sustain that momentum. Duncanville used a combination of strong hits and Wylie errors to finish the first set on an 8-1 run to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five match.
To begin the second set, junior Aubrey DeGrate gave Wylie its first lead of the match after she hit the ball up the right line for a kill and a 1-0 advantage. A few minutes later, junior Julia Hudgins posted a block to end a 4-1 Duncanville run and reduce the Lady Pirates’ deficit to 4-3. But the rest of the set was all Pantherettes.
Duncanville proceeded to morph into the dominant squad that had won 18 straight matches and lost just two sets since Aug. 30.
The Pantherettes dug out just about every ball that Wylie hit while converting those defensive plays into more booming hits. Junior Kaitlyn Polley lowered the boom with a kill, her first of two in a span of three points.
Wylie was held to a .164 hitting percentage compared to .301 for Duncanville.
Polley’s kill ignited an 11-0 run for Duncanville.
Hudgins finally ended Duncanville’s run with a kill. Senior Peyton Stade attempted to build off that play. She had a strong stretch of play in which she notched three kills over a span of five points. She finished the match with a team-high 10 kills.
But that only cut the Pantherettes’ lead to 19-11. Senior Ryea Jackson provided the finishing touches for Duncanville. She notched back-to-back kills to jump-start a 6-3 Pantherettes run to end the second set for a 2-0 Duncanville lead in the best-of-five match.
A few days after Wylie regrouped just in time to defeat Rockwall-Heath in bi-district, the Lady Pirates attempted to pull off a reverse sweep of the Pantherettes.
Wylie picked up its intensity on defense to keep Duncanville’s high-powered offense in check early in the third set. Wylie took a 7-4 lead after a Stade kill and later took its largest lead of the match at 13-7 after junior Keelyn Green notched a kill.
However, a long serve on the very next point stalled Wylie’s momentum. Duncanville rallied with an 18-6 run. A hitting error on match point allowed the Pantherettes to complete the sweep of this second-round match.
Overall, it was another successful season for the Lady Pirates. Wylie finished with a 30-13 record and went a perfect 16-0 in District 9-6A play to earn its first outright district title in program history.
For more on this story see the November 13, 2025 print, or digital edition of The Wylie News. Subscribe today and support local journalism in your community.
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