Wylie East libero Sadie Green-Sustaire makes a pass in serve-receive during Monday’s road match at Prestonwood Christian Academy. Photo by Oladipo Awowale / C&S Media
By David Wolman
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PLANO — Both the Wylie East and Prestonwood Christian Academy volleyball teams came into Tuesday’s season opener with new players, in addition to a new coach for the Lady Raiders.
First-year Wylie East head coach Tasha Hallam led a revamped Lady Raider team that had nine new players on their roster into battle against three-time defending TAPPS Class 6A state champion Prestonwood Christian, which was No. 3 in the final MaxPreps national rankings.
Wylie East wasn’t intimidated by Prestonwood Christian’s championship lore.
The Lady Raiders played a relentless style of defense and freshman outside hitter Tess Adamic recorded 14 kills during her first career high school match. Yet, for as hard as Wylie East battled, the Lady Raiders were unable to overcome the hard hits of junior middle blocker Nyla Livings, an LSU commit, and the jump serves of freshman Peyton Thompson in a 25-22, 15-25, 25-20, 16-25, 9-15 road loss.
“I was excited to see what it was going to look like against a team with all of those accolades, ranked so high every single year and just has a great coaching staff,” Hallam said. “Even though we came up short, we stepped onto the court with confidence and we were never out of the match.”
Wylie East came into the season having to replace five starters from last season’s team, including Erika Hernandez, last year’s District 9-6A MVP, while Prestonwood Christian graduated Macaria Spears, last year’s Gatorade Texas Player of the Year.
But starting from the time when she was hired on March 26 to team tryouts earlier this month, Hallam said that the Lady Raiders were a connected group and that the team was ready to build on last season’s run to the third round of the Class 6A Division II playoffs.
“These girls are just really hard workers, and they just enjoy being on the court with each other,” Hallam said. “When you’ve got a team that loves each other and is going to work hard, it makes my job really easy. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Wylie East was the more energized team to begin Monday’s match.
With the score tied at 11-11, Wylie East took the lead for good after a Prestonwood Christian player hit the ball out of bounds. The Lady Raiders later bumped their advantage to 22-16 after an Adamic kill before clinching the first set after back-to-back hitting errors by the Lions.
“She had some big hits,” Hallam said of Adamic. “She is very composed.”
In the second set, Wylie East struggled to defend the jump serve of Thompson. She served six straight points midway through the set with two service aces, igniting a 15-9 Lions run to end the set. However, the Lady Raiders made the necessary defensive adjustments and had better success against Thompson in the third set.
Wylie East battled Prestonwood Christian point for point in the early-going before the Lady Raiders assumed control. A block by sophomore Rileigh Brown, which gave Wylie East a 15-12 lead, gave the Lady Raiders much-needed momentum. Senior setter Jordan Turner, a Memphis commit, was also utilized for her hitting abilities Monday. Turner recorded a kill for a commanding 22-17 Lady Raiders lead. Six points later, an Adamic kill gave Wylie East a two sets to one lead.
“Everyone is playing their roles really well, and we’ve had some people step up into key positions,” Hallam said.
Wylie East continued to battle but was unable to come up with enough defensive stops.
In the fifth set, Turner tied the score at 7-7 with a kill, but an ace by Thompson on the very next point gave the Lions the lead for a good as Prestonwood Christian finished the match on an 8-2 run.
“Thompson’s top spin served is wicked,” Hallam said. “We definitely had to figure out how to navigate that. We were able to make some adjustments and make some basic changes. (Livings) was great for them as well and really challenged our block and our defense. I was happy to see them rise to the challenge.”
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