Don’t bother pointing out that the Katy volleyball team’s three-set win against Cinco Ranch in Saturday’s Katy ISD Tournament championship game didn’t come when it counts most.

This wasn’t a district game, but it didn’t have to be.

The Tigers defeated the eight-time defending district champion Cougars for the first time since 2004, surviving a 25-21, 24-26, 26-24 nailbiter at the Merrell Center that may have been better suited for Oct. 16 than Aug. 16.

In a game full of impressive individual efforts, Matte Haack had 14 kills and Sandra Adeleye added 11 for Katy, which remains undefeated at 9-0.

“We’re over the Cinco hump,” Tigers coach Karen Paxton said. “It’s huge. I feel like we had that weight on our shoulders the last couple years. We’ve always gotten so close – maybe taking them to five sets, then being up a game and losing. This is what it’s about.”

Katy added this victory to an impressive dossiere that included a win against 2007 state semifinalist Cy-Fair earlier in the tournament.

Haack had six of her kills in the third set, including one to seal the victory.

Cinco (8-2) rallied four times in the latter stages of the set to tie the game, but Katy’s Jessica Acord and Shannon Adams blocked a would-be kill by Cinco’s Rachel Fairbanks to give the Tigers a 25-24 lead before Haack slammed the door.

“We knew it would be tough. It always is when we play Cinco,” Adeleye said. “Our back row was great. They were digging a lot of balls, which helped our setters a lot with great sets and we were just able to put the ball away.”

Fairbanks took center stage at the end of the second set, averting a Katy sweep by posting three consecutive kills at the end.

“Their outsides do a great job of terminating balls,” Paxton said. “That was a big task for our defense to stop them.”

Lindsey Miller had 10 kills for the Cougars.

The teams’ District 17-5A meetings are scheduled for Oct. 10 at Cinco Ranch and Oct. 28 – the regular-season finale – at Katy.

“This is only the beginning of the season,” Adeleye said. “We feel like together, we can only go upward and get better.”

THIRD PLACE: A&M Consolidated d. Seven Lakes 25-12, 25-12

A&M Consolidated took commanding leads early in the first set and late in the second to sweep Seven Lakes (6-3) in the third-place game.

Erika Arthur and Mimi McFarland each had six kills and Kelsey Kinley had seven digs for Consolidated (13-1), three-time defending 13-5A champions.

The Spartans, meanwhile, have been pointing to this year for a while. They have seven seniors, and even with disappointing late-round losses here – they were swept by Cinco Ranch in the semifinals – coach Farah Holder is encouraged because most of the mistakes seem correctible.

“A lot of it was our serve-receive. In each loss, that’s what broke down. Everything we’ve done wrong can be fixed,” she said. “This week has been great, especially coming back from (Friday) night, a five-set win against Fort Bend Travis. But these are all things we’re going to learn from. Luckily it’s Aug. 16, not Oct. 16. We have a lot to look forward to and a lot to be positive about.”

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