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Hometown Feel: Lady Eagles get better idea about team at host tourney
BY Kevin Hageland, khageland@starlocalnews.com
While winning a tournament is always a goal, the Allen volleyball team entered its host Texas Open looking to see signs off improvement from the Duncanville Tournament of Champions a week prior.
And those signs were there ... at least some of the time.
"Obviously there were moments where our ball control just went out the window" said Kelley Gregoriew, Allen head coach, "but I feel like we played well most of the way. We showed that we are totally capable, we just have to maintain that level of play we're capable of."
"We knew Heritage was good, so we were excited to play them," Gregoriew said. "They run a pretty fast offense, so that can create a problem for the blockers."
Particularly for younger team like Allen, who have two freshman (Paige Cole and Chandler Atwood) and three sophomores (Sheridan Ralston, Sydney Joseph and Kaitlyn Blake) on the roster.
"We have a very young team," Gregoriew said. "And when you talk about those freshmen, these are girls that are going from eighth grade ball to this."
Cole, Atwood, Ralston and Joseph have all seen time this season, while Blake had not heading into the Texas Open. That will change though as the 6-foot-2 Blake has healed from an ankle injury suffered during club season.
"We aren't going to use Kaitlyn full out right away because we don't want her to get sore now or later in the season," Gregoriew said. "But we are starting to work her back in and I think that will make a big difference because she can hit, block, pass; really she is a dynamic player all the way around."
While Allen is in the midst of a youth movement, it was a veteran player (junior Camryn Freiberg) that led the way in a crossover win over Sachse (25-20, 25-17).
That match determined if Allen went to the championship or challenger bracket.
"We came out slow and I'll admit, I was a little nervous," Gregoriew said. "But Camryn started to come on, really they all did because we have the type of team where we need all the girls to play well if we want to be successful."
With the win, Allen moved into Saturday's championship bracket and kicked that portion of the tournament off with a district preview against 10-5A foe McKinney Boyd. The Lady Broncos took the first set, 25-18, and faced a hefty deficit in the second set before bolstering their lineup and closing out the match, 25-22.
"We should have won that second set," Gregoriew said. "But so much of this game is mental and we had a big lead that we just let slip away. The girls were frustrated about losing, but we refocused them by talking about the big picture."
That talk appeared effective as Allen won its next two matches.
Using juniors Katie Engle and Hannah Walsh at setter and rotating in fresh players to swing, the Lady Eagles defeated Keller (25-18, 15-25, 25-21) and Ursuline (25-22, 25-23) to reach the challenger bracket finals.
With that spot came a rematch with Heritage.
The Lady Panthers would be victorious again, but not without more of a struggle (24-26, 25-3, 25-14).
"I think that shows the improvements we have made, just during the tournament," Gregoriew said. "Now we have to keep that up because the next week is going to be a tough one and we'll see if these girls can persevere and handle challenges."
Allen, which lost to top-ranked Class 5A Southlake Carroll (25-9, 25-9, 25-13) Tuesday, completes its tournament schedule Friday and Saturday in the Arlington Invitational before hitting the road Tuesday for a 6:30 p.m. match against top-ranked Class 4A Lovejoy.
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