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Dig this: Boyd finishes fifth at Duncanville tournament
By Andrew Snyder, asnyder@starlocalnews.com
McKinney Boyd got the full experience Friday and Saturday at the Duncanville Tournament of Champions. After opening the tournament with five consecutive sweeps, the Lady Broncos got their first taste of defeat in a role-reversing, two-set loss against Colleyville Heritage.
Boyd placed fifth overall in a field loaded with premiere teams. Southlake Carroll won the tournament for the second consecutive year by sweeping reigning Class 5A State Champion Coppell (25-22, 25-21), who defeated the Lady Broncos in last year’s state finals.
Along with Coppell (No. 1 in LoneStarVolleyball.com's preseason poll), Boyd (2) and Carroll (5), the tournament also featured Lovejoy (4), Westlake (7), Magnolia (10), Plano West (11), Arlington (12), Amarillo (13), College Park (14), Clear Creek (16) and A&M Consolidated (19), along with a slew of other talented teams.
The sweep of Clear Creek stood out as Boyd's best match of the tournament. The Lady Broncos earned all but one of their points in the first set and Megan Mollett, who earned all-tournament honors, hit .640 across the match.
Mollett was joined by sophomore outside hitter Ashleigh Martin and sophomore middle blocker Meagan Elkins as standout performers at the tournament. The varsity newcomers didn’t take long to begin contributing in a big way.
“They're going to be studs,” said Kelly Quinn, Boyd head coach. “They’re very talented all-around and have a ton of potential.”
After holding its opponents to less than 19 points in every set it played Friday, the Lady Broncos took a step back defensively on the second day of the tournament. Though they stretched their tournament winning streak to five matches with a sweep of Kingwood (27-25, 25-23) in their first match Saturday, it was a much more hard-fought performance than they had needed previously.
Mix that with a late trip home the previous night and early trip back to the tournament in the morning, and Quinn felt that her team was tired Saturday, though she added that was something every team at Duncanville had to deal with.
“We played amazingly on Friday,” she said, “but we struggled a little in the morning.”
The rapid pace of tournament play caught up with the Lady Broncos in their next match, as Heritage handed them their first loss of the season (25-22, 25-17) and brought one of the player’s preseason goals, an undefeated season, to an abrupt end.
“If we lose and learn along the way, I’m fine with that,” Quinn said.
The lesson to learn from Saturday’s loss centered on team defense.
“We were trying to play bigger than ourselves,” Quinn said. “We weren't playing as a team. We weren't relying on our defensive system, which has to have everyone playing their job. If everyone plays their job, we function at a high level.”
Boyd (6-2 on the season) exited the tournament as a confident team better aware of the weaknesses left in its game. Quinn said that the goal is to have her team playing at their peak as it heads into the playoffs – where every previous win and loss matters only as much as it helped them refine their play.
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