The Region 3-5A volleyball playoffs continued Friday night at the Merrell Center with Cinco Ranch and Memorial winning in sweeps, defeating Stratford and Katy respectively.

{mp3}071101-CyWoodsVB-coach{/mp3}  If you have sensitive ears you did not want to be in Butler Field House Thursday night for the Bellaire-Cypress Woods Region 3-5A area playoff game.

{mp3}071101-CFBenotti-final{/mp3}    Cy-Fair outside hitter Ashley Vander Hey led the way with 16 kills as the Bobcats swept Lamar 25-14, 25-20, 25-7 in the area playoffs at the Aldine M.O.

  Region 3-5A bi-district volleyball playoffs took place at The Berry Center Tuesday night as Cinco Ranch defeated Langham Creek and Cypress Woods defeated Katy Taylor, both 3-1. Cinco Ranch, the district 18-5A champs, came out a little tight in game 1 versus Langham Creek.

    After facing Cypress Falls in regular season play, the Katy volleyball team knew what they were getting into with Tuesday night’s bi-district match up at Cypress Springs.

Stratford volleyball coach Becky Palermo didn’t know how to explain the Spartans’ first-set troubles against Westside Tuesday night. The Spartans’ play in the second and third sets guaranteed she won’t have much time to worry. Stratford trailed by a point late in the first set and rallied to win, then was rarely challenged in the next two sets of a 25-22, 25-5, 25-15 victory in a Region 3-5A bi-district game at Northbrook. “Ugly, ugly, ugly,” Palermo said of the first set, in which Stratford trailed 22-21 but reeled off four straight points to win.

 {mp3}vbcyfair2{/mp3}    17-5A’s District Champs, the Cy-Fair Bobcats took on the Elsik Rams Tuesday night at Seven Lakes High School.

  Behind two games to none, the Waltrip volleyball team fought its way back into their area playoff match with Huntsville Monday night at the Campbell Center.

  Eisenhower notched a school-record 30th win in volleyball Tuesday at the Campbell Center, beating Nimitz in three straight, 25-11, 25-21, 25-18 in its final district match of the season.

  The Kinkaid Falcons hosted the John Cooper Dragons Wednesday night in a SPC Counter Match.  Both teams played for a seed in the South Zone in hopes to move on to the State SPC Championship in Dallas taking place November 1-2.

                  The Memorial volleyball team has seen all along where its regular-season was going to end.

    Elsik volleyball team's Tuesday win over Katy Taylor has put them in a position that everyone hopes to be in, postseason play.

    Cinco Ranch volleyball finished out their winning season with another win against Hastings Tuesday night in 18-5A’s last district game.

    Katy and Mayde Creek’s last district game took place Tuesday night, where the Rams hosted the Tigers.

  Two weeks before the SPC Championship Tournament, St.

          It took the Elsik Lady Rams five games to subdue Mayde Creek and remain in the playoff hunt in District 18-5A.  Behind the tenacious hitting and blocking of seniors Adaora Elonu and Rachael Blunt, Elsik demonstrated plenty of fire power at the net in the posting the 20-25, 25-16, 25-22, 21-25, 15-7 win.

                   The Katy volleyball team fought off elimination time and again Tuesday night, not only from game point but its district championship hopes. The Tigers kept four incredible rallies alive at one point in the fourth set, but in the end, Cinco Ranch’s front row of Lindsey Miller, Mary Beth Allcorn and Ali Becker proved too formidable. So did history. Miller had 12 kills and Allcorn added a game-high 16 digs in a 23-25, 25-20, 25-17, 25-23 victory, assuring the host Cougars their seventh consecutive district championship in front of a near-capacity crowd. Cinco Ranch (28-8, 12-0) is two games ahead of Katy (19-14, 10-2) with two to play, but even if the teams tie Cinco Ranch holds the tiebreaker. “My players expect that.

  The nationally-ranked Cy-Fair Bobcats hosted the Cy Springs Panthers Tuesday night in a District 17-5A game.

  The Westbury Christian Wildcats hosted the Eagles from Second Baptist Thursday night.

              “Momentum is a scary thing,” said Episcopal’s head coach, Kathy Coe.

             The men of Episcopal hosted Kinkaid in a volleyball match that was not an SPC game, but counted just the same.

        The Eisenhower Eagles gave Stratford's volleyball team all they could handle for two games Tuesday night in their District 19-5A match up on Eisenhower's home court.  Stratford won 25-23, 25-21, 25-15 behind Jennifer Jordan's 19 kills, but it was still a struggle every step of the way, thanks to Karensa Beckford, Jamie Johnson and company.

              When an undefeated district team goes into a match up it is likely that they will be the team that everyone wants to beat.

      As the Memorial volleyball team begins its final push for a District 19-5A championship, it’s focusing on improving at least one weakness every match. Atop the Mustangs’ to-do list Tuesday night against Aldine was hitting coverage. Not only did Memorial succeed in covering its own turf, it made sure Aldine had trouble defending its side. Memorial remained undefeated in the district, cruising past visiting Aldine 25-9, 25-6, 25-9. Shawn Hindman and Sidney Stewart had seven kills apiece for Memorial, which was never seriously threatened.

         Fort Bend Baptist acting volleyball coach Shafonia Bolanos was holding a copy of the TAPPS District 5-4A tournament bracket after Thursday night’s win at Westbury Christian.

It took the Waltrip Lady Rams four games to put away the pesky Stephen F.

  The MacArthur Lady Generals threw all they had at the Lady Mustangs of Memorial in their fight to remain in the District 19-5A playoff race Tuesday night at Memorial High, to no avail.

    Cinco Ranch traveled to Morton Ranch Tuesday night, for what the Cougars hoped would be their eighth district win.

  The Second Baptist Eagles hosted the Cougars from Northland Christian Tuesday night.

    The battle of Katy ISD schools went to the Taylor (21-10, 6-2) volleyball team Tuesday night as the Mustangs defeated Mayde Creek (14-17, 4-4) in three sets (25-18, 25-22, 25-22).

A roster of two seniors, one sophomore and 11 juniors had Katy volleyball coach Karen Paxton hoping the Tigers again would contend for the District 18-5A championship. It’s taken a little while for them to jell, but a little more than halfway through the district schedule the Tigers are inches from the lead. Katy showed Tuesday night what it’s improved on the last several weeks, using fast play and consistent teamwork to sweep host Alief Taylor, 25-10, 25-18, 25-18, in district play.

    The Memorial Lady Mustangs (26-5) faced the Stratford Lady Spartans (15-10) in a battle that was not easily won.

      First and Second Round Action   The 26th annual Houston ISD Invitational Volleyball Tournament kicked off in a big way at four sites around the district, including at Reagan High School where two of HISD's top 5A and 4A teams notched a couple of quick victories in the first round of play Thursday.

The Second Baptist Eagles looked like a volleyball team on a mission to reclaim the state title they won in 2002 and 2003 as they defeated a tough Concordia Lutheran team from Tomball in three straight games in TAPPS district action Tuesday at Second Baptist. Despite a scrappy defense, timely blocks and hard hitting up front, the Concordia Crusaders had no answer for the Eagles’ senior duo of Amber Calhoun and Stephanie Biediger. And that’s exactly why Eagle Coach Sue Berg likes her team’s chances of going back to the state playoffs.

  Defense was the name of the game and the key to the Katy volleyball team’s success in a District 19-5A win over Alief Elsik Tuesday night.

    Tuesday night volleyball was happening over at Cinco Ranch as they hosted Taylor for another District 18-5A match.

The Stratford volleyball team used some front-row dominance to overpower playoff hopeful MacArthur in a District 19-5A volleyball game Tuesday night.

    The Falcons from Kinkaid hit the court Monday night against Homeschool Christian Youth Association (HCYA).

    As The Athlete's Connection walked into Katy’s gym, we thought we were late.

What’s a high school guy to do if he wants to play a sport in the fall in Texas and football’s not his thing? Kinkaid Coach Andre Kharma has the answer: Volleyball.

  The Waltrip Lady Rams volleyball squad kept its 19-4A record unblemished as they racked up their fifth district victory Wednesday night at Delmar Field House over Booker T.

        When the Memorial volleyball team goes into any match up, they know that a large target is on their back.

    Cinco Ranch hosted Mayde Creek Tuesday night for the third district game of the 2007 volleyball season.

  District 18-5A’s Katy Tigers and the Morton Ranch Mavericks hit the court Tuesday night at Morton Ranch in a quick fire district game.

  Second Baptist started their district play with a win against Lutheran North tonight, winning the match 3-0.

      In three games, the Katy volleyball team (11-12, 2-0) beat cross-town district rival Taylor (16-9, 1-1) Tuesday night on Taylor’s court.

        Kinkaid hosted Houston Christian in a match that went five games on Tuesday night.  After game one, serving proved to be the key to winning the match.    The Falcons came out scoring in game one, taking advantage of being on their home court.  Up four points, they held the lead, as Mason Bashan served five consecutive points to increase the Falcon lead to nine.

      The Stratford Spartans improved their District record with a 3-0 win against the Spring Woods Tigers Tuesday night.

     Volleyball’s 2007 district play began tonight for the Stratford Spartans and the Aldine Mustangs at the Spartans home gym.

    Seven Lakes scored 15 unanswered points in Game 4 to seal the victory against Mayde Creek Wednesday night.