Third time hopes to be a charm
Undefeated district champs go head to head
The Redhawks cruise through district 5-9A with an undefeated season, and are now working their way through playoffs. In their Tuesday match against Lovejoy, the team looks to take down Lovejoy, another team with an undefeated record, and continue their playoff season.
Going into the third round of playoffs Tuesday at McKinney Boyd at 6:30 p.m., the Redhawk volleyball team looks to upset the Lovejoy Leopards, after two consecutive years of Lovejoy ending the Redhawks season.
“This is our biggest game yet, and probably one of the biggest games Redhawk volleyball has seen,” senior Jenna Wenaas said. “I know people outside of volleyball are just as excited as we are, just because it is going to be such a fun atmosphere to be a part of.”
For the past two seasons, Wennas and the Redhawk team have faced the Leopards in the third round of district, making the match a focus point for Wennas, and an important milestone for the team.
“My mentality is that it doesn’t matter what the outcome of the past two years has been because today we’re all playing this Lovejoy team for the first time,” Wenaas said. “It’s a completely new game and can’t be compared to last year and the year before that, but I’m definitely expecting the win because of how well we’ve been doing, and how good we are.”
With each team looking at the match up in a different way, the game is gaining a lot of attention and excitement, but head coach Ui Womble believes the team is ready to camly and cleanly handle the challenges in the upcoming match.
“It’s exciting, there’s a lot of hype about tonight, we haven’t played them all season so it’s going to be great,” Womble said. “I’m confident, I trust our team, I think they have worked really hard this year, and we’ve really excelled. You don’t go district champions and undefeated without doing things right.”
While the Rehawks have been mentally and physically preparing for their match up with the Leopards, Lovejoy has been doing the same, according to their head coach Ryan Mitchell.
“I think we as a team are focused and ready to play. If you are a competitive player and coach then you will enjoy playing the very best, and Frisco Liberty is among the very best this season,” Mitchell said via email. “I think the team and the fans are really looking forward to this matchup with Frisco Liberty.”
Both teams are riding double digit win streaks, but this third round match up will determine who will continue in their run for playoffs.
“I am looking forward to playing a really tough team. It is why you play the game and why you train so hard all year long,” Mitchell said. “I hate that two great teams are meeting so early in the playoffs but that is just how the bracket works out and so we have to prepare yourself to play this opponent.”
With the stakes high, and the tension rising, both teams are ready for the game, and are looking forward to what lies ahead in the season.
“As a coach, you just try and prepare your team for the different things that they could see or experience during the match,” Mitchell said. “You give them a set of answers on how to handle any type of situation that they might encounter, but at the end of the day it is about getting out there tonight and executing on those things we have worked on.”
Maddie Aronson is a senior, and joined Wingspan her junior year. She loves attention, oreos, and fun earrings, and is looking forward to a career in environmental...
