Lady Rams Season Ends as Springtown Takes the Area Playoff Match in Three Sets
By Amy Bearden
The picture above says it all for the season ending match between the Mineral Wells High School and Springtown volleyball teams. The Lady Rams left it all on the floor in front of completely filled bleachers full of Ram fans as they fought to advance past the Area playoff match. Unfortunately they couldn’t outplay the Lady Porcupines.
It was a fairly quick match as Mineral Wells fell in three and never scored more than 13 points in a single set. 25-13, 25-10, 25-12 were the final scores of each set. They lost match point on an Ace by Springtown and looked stunned and sad as the match ended.
No one enjoys losing their last game.
Coach Kimberly Branch
The Lady Rams emotions were evident as the girls shook hands with the winners and headed into the locker room after the match to hear from Head Coach Kimberly Branch. She told them to not let the night’s loss diminish what they accomplished this season.
“They broke school records, set high standards for the underclassman and have paved a way for great things to come for the mineral wells lady rams. Not just Volleyball, but across the board,” Branch said.
“As far as the game, once you hit the playoffs, you have to be on. And I think the lack of experience in play off setting hurt us and we just couldn’t ever get anything going.”
The team is young and will return many starters and stars next season including Libero Isavel Ramirez, Caylee Cloud, Nevaeh Strange, Brittany Delk, Aryan Perez, Kahlea Samples, Kristen Riney and Hannah Perales. Seniors Abbey Tincher, Marlee Lawhon and Hailee Cunningham’s will no doubt be missed next season but the bench is deep for the Lady Rams and the future is bright for Branch’s program.
“The seniors paved the way and the underclassman got a taste of playoff excitement and I think they are hungrier than ever. We will continue to improve and develop. We have really strong freshman and JV groups coming up. Our JH is strong. I think we will only get stronger in the future. I expect more playoff runs in years to come,” stated Branch.
Mineral Wells finished the season with an overall record of 24 and16 giving them the first winning season in many years. Congratulations Lady Rams on an outstanding year.
(And just for the record, Springtown exited the playoffs in the next round as they were stung in three sets by the Stephenville Honeybees.)
