The Cypress Woods volleyball team wore shirts during and after its Region3-5A quarterfinal Tuesday night saying “Got seniors? We don’t!”

Try telling that to Cinco Ranch, which needed a marked step up in its defensive effort from the entire team – including its 10 seniors – to escape the Wildcats.

Ali Becker had 13 kills and Lindsey Miller nine to pace the Cougars to a 27-25, 25-18, 25-18 victory at The Merrell Center in Katy and their first regional semifinal berth since 2003.

The Cougars (33-8) needed a set to figure out the Wildcats, who thrived off a quick game but couldn’t overcome Becker, Miller and Jennifer Sanders’ front-row dominance.

“There were some nerves out there,” Cinco Ranch coach Tammy Laurence said. “Cy Woods has a very fast-paced game across the net and we don’t see that all the time so that took them a while to get used to. But once they saw and knew to anticipate who was doing what, then our game came along. But it took a while to figure them out.”

The Cougars will play Clear Creek in a regional semifinal Friday night at Aldine ISD.

Defensive specialist Jennifer Marches and sophomore middle hitter Desiree Elliott paced Cy Woods, a second-year school that has eight juniors on its roster, to leads of 16-13 and 23-21 in the first set. Elliott was masterful with her serving, handcuffing several Cougars more than once. But Cinco Ranch fought back to ties at 24 and 25, and Becker’s kill to the middle closed out the harrowing first set.

Miller led the Cougars offense in the first set, giving way to Becker, Sanders and others later.

“My hitting was really on (in the first set) and we knew they had shorter blockers on our right side so that worked really well for us,” Miller said.

Cinco Ranch bolted to early leads in the other two sets, holding Cy Woods at least five points off most of the time.

“Everyone pulled together really well,” Cougars senior setter/defensive specialist Kaitlin Dineen said. “Not just the defense; the offense was perfect and we had really good blocks. Everything went well. … We got a lot of good ups and once the back row gets pumped up, I’m pretty sure the front row does too.”

Cinco Ranch and Clear Creek met earlier this year in the Spring Branch ISD Invitational. Friday’s winner plays in the regional final at 4 p.m. Saturday.

“They have weapons all across the net and they get a lot of good shots,” Laurence said. “Their libero is simply amazing, one of the best in the region.”

Friday and maybe Saturday, Cinco Ranch gets at least one chance to see where it stacks up.