Wylie junior Jolene Bao lifts her index fingers in the air after the Lady Pirates defeated Rockwall-Heath in five sets during a Class 6A Division I bi-district playoff match on Thursday at Royse City High School. Photo by Tina Lopez / C&S Media
By Art Stricklin
ROYSE CITY — After losing one set over the last month, the Wylie Lady Pirates found the winning touch after watching Rockwall-Heath battle back to force a deciding fifth set, pulling out a clutch fifth set win to earn a hard-fought 3-2 victory (25-17, 25-15, 23-25, 21-25, 15-10) in a Class 6A Division I bi-district playoff match at Royse City High School on Thursday.
The win moved the Lady Pirates to 30-12 overall. The Lady Pirates will play Duncanville in the area round next week at a time and location to be determined. Duncanville defeated Temple in three sets, also on Thursday.
The two teams traded momentum swings in the early going.
Wylie jumped out to an 8-5 lead and led virtually the entire first set, forcing a Heath timeout at 19-13 en route to the impressive win. The second set was even a bigger blowout as they took an early 4-1 lead and never trailed, opening up a 18-8 edge.
But in the third set, Wylie made a few unforced errors that Heath took advantage of. The score was tied 21-21, but a Wylie serve landed out of bounds, leading Heath to the narrow win. Heath never trailed in the fourth set, taking an early 16-9 lead and not letting up.
After losing the fourth set, Wylie head coach Sherry Olivares reminded her team who they were and of their assignments.
“I just told them to remember the game plan and get back to what they were supposed to be doing,” she said. “They executed it in the first two games, let it get away in the third and the fourth, but had to get back to it.”
Whatever it was, Wylie kicked back in for the fifth and final game. The Lady Pirates led 2-0 after a thunderous spike by Keelyn Green and never looked back. The Lady Pirates gained leads of 6-1 and 9-3 before putting the upset bid to rest much to the delight of the Wylie fans and players.
“These girls are very resilient, always keep fighting and you can’t put them away,” Olivares added.
Indeed that was the case as they storm the court after another spike from Julia Hudgins and a dig and a spike Green to close out the match following a net ball from Heath.
“I thought the defense from Jolene (Bao) was really special tonight and helped to propel the comeback and feel Keelyn (Green) and Julia (Hudgins) had some really good shots,” said Olivares.
Wylie got a dominant effort from Hudgins, who logged a team-high 28 kills in the victory, followed by 14 kills from Green. Bao, with 31 digs, was a defensive force in the Lady Pirates’ back row. Senior Olivia Royal dished out 28 assists.
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