Wylie junior Julia Hudgins (11) recorded a team-high 14 kills during an Aug. 12 home match against Highland Park. Photo by Elijah Kloepping / C&S Media
By Seth Dowdle
The Wylie Lady Pirates volleyball team opened the 2025 season with a challenging weekend at the Battle for the Rock tournament in Rockwall, facing some of the toughest programs in North Texas.
Across three days of competition from Aug. 14-16, the Lady Pirates posted two wins and five losses, but the results tell only part of the story. According to Wylie head coach Sherry Olivares, the weekend provided valuable learning experiences that could pay dividends as the season progresses.
“We knew going in it was going to be a tough tournament,” Olivares said. “So, we were faced with a lot of lessons, and we passed some of the lessons, some of them not so good. As long as we learn from it the next time, we’re in that situation, we’ll be good.”
The first day of the tournament was pool play, and the Lady Pirates drew a difficult group. TAPPS state champion Prestonwood Christian was the first opponent, followed by UIL powerhouse Allen. Rockwall-Heath rounded out the pool. The results of pool play determined each team’s position in bracket play on Friday and Saturday.
First up were matches against Prestonwood Christian and Allen. The Lady Pirates dropped both, falling 2-0 (25-22, 25-22) to Prestonwood Christian and 2-0 (25-17, 25-23) to Allen. Wylie bounced back against Rockwall-Heath, however, pulling out a tight 2-1 (23-25, 25-23, 25-21) win. Juniors Keelyn Green and Julia Hudgins led the way, with Green recording 15 kills and Hudgins adding 10.
Those two, along with Aubrey Degrate, form the core of this year’s team. Through the first several games of the season, Hudgins leads the Lady Pirates in kills with 62, followed by Green with 56 and Degrate with 39. Hudgins and Green also have contributed 62 and 61 digs, respectively, while Jo Bao paces the team with 80.
Even with some strong individual performances, Olivares said there’s still room for growth.
“We have a lot of returning players, but they have a different role on our team this year,” she said. “So in that role comes different expectations and different pressures. They just have to learn how to deal with that. … Again, it’s just all a learning experience.”
Bracket play began Friday with Birdville. Wylie took the first set 25-21 but dropped the next three (25-18, 25-12, 26-24) to lose 3-1. The Lady Pirates bounced back later that day with a 3-1 (25-21, 24-26, 25-12, 25-19) victory over Ursuline Academy.
Saturday brought more challenges, as Wylie fell 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-19) to John Paul II before dropping a 2-0 (25-13, 25-22) rematch to Rockwall-Heath, closing the tournament with a 3-6 record on the season.
“We’re going to make some adjustments this week in practice based on some observations from this weekend,” Olivares said. “Then we’ll make adjustments again if it doesn’t work, but we’ll keep finding adjustments and combinations and just kind of working together to figure things out.”
The Lady Pirates opened District 9-6A play Tuesday against South Garland and will resume non-district tournament action at the Allen Texas Open on Friday and Saturday. Wylie will return to district play against Lakeview Centennial on Aug. 29 before finishing non-district competition at the Arete Cup in McKinney on Aug. 29-30.
0 Comments