Published: November 03, 2009 10:08 pm      

BREAKING NEWS: Cleburne falls to Red Oak

CEDAR HILL — The 2009 season came to a close for the Cleburne Lady Jacket volleyball team on Tuesday night at Cedar Hill High School.

Cleburne (21-19) was swept by No. 5 Red Oak, 25-18, 25-9, 25-20 in the bidistrict round of the Class 4A playoffs.

After staging a late-season rally to almost grab 16-4A’s third place spot, the Lady Jackets lost a tiebreaker with Midlothian on Friday to fall to fourth place, setting up the meeting with the state-ranked 15-4A champion Lady Hawks.

In Game 1, the Lady Jackets showed resilience and took an early 9-8 lead before Red Oak responded with an 11-3 burst to take a 19-12 advantage.

Cleburne battled back to within four at 20-16, but the Lady Hawks proved too much and the Lady Jackets dropped five of the final seven points to lose Game 1.

Cleburne head coach Floyd Rogers said the fight was there for his team during Game 1, but said his team failed to recapture the competitive spirit in the final two games.

“I felt like in the first game, we were doing what we were supposed to be doing,” Rogers said. “Some balls could have fallen either way. I thought we would bounce back in the second game, but we showed a lack of competitive nature. I thought we’d compete more.

“I’m proud of them, but I just felt like we could’ve maybe been more competitive throughout.”

After an early 2-1 Lady Jacket advantage in Game 2, the Lady Hawks took control by winning 13 of the next 16 points, and built a 14-5 lead.

Cleburne never got closer than seven points the rest of the way as Red Oak built a 2-0 lead.

In Game 3 with the Lady Hawks leading 21-11, the Lady Jackets staged one final rally and cut the lead to four at 24-20, but Red Oak sealed the deal on the next point.

Putting the 2009 season into perspective, Rogers said the body of work was a success.

“At the first of the year we were trying to gain some experience in places we maybe didn’t have it,” Rogers said. “We kept digging ourselves out of it and we were trying to get to .500 before district and we were close, but I could continually see us gaining confidence.”

Cleburne went 10-4 in 16-4A play and had won 15 of the last 24 matches heading into Tuesday’s playoff battle.

Rogers said while the Lady Jackets drew a tough opponent in the first round, Cleburne has nothing to be ashamed of with more wins than losses at the end of the season.

“The district season went about how I expected it,” Rogers said. “Overall, I’m very proud. One of our goals was to make the playoffs and show the state that Cleburne is a playoff-caliber team.

“It was a great season to be honest and even though there were a lot of other district champions we could’ve beaten tonight, that’s no reason that we should be holding our heads down.”

Morgan Brown finished off her Lady Jacket volleyball career with nine kills, three digs and a block and senior Haylie Marshall had four kills, six digs and an ace.

Aley Zachary finished with nine kills and a dig and Callie McNulty had a kill and two digs.

Shelby Contreras had 14 digs and two aces, Linsey Munguia had two digs and Lacy Stinebaugh had nine digs, an ace and 20 assists.