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Westlake Back "On Our Game" With Pearland Title

By Steven Thomson
©2003 LoneStarVolleyball.com

Austin Westlake continued its dominance of Texas high school volleyball by defeating Arlington Martin 25-13, 25-23, 25-13 in the finals of the 42-team Katrinka Jo Crawford Invitational tournament hosted by Pearland High School over the weekend.

The second meeting of the season matching two of the state's most prestigious high school programs lacked the competitiveness and skill level of their initial 2003 contest in the finals of the Duncanville tournament two weeks ago. Martin looked flat and offered no resistance to Westlake's furious attack.

"That was the best we've played all season," Westlake coach Al Bennett said. "We were on our game."

Martin was coming off an emotional 25-19, 26-24 win over Stratford in the semifinals. The hotly contested match provided the Warriors a bit of payback for last year's loss to the Spartans in the state 5A semifinals.

There was little that Martin did not do right against Stratford. At the same time, it appeared to take all the emotion out of the Warriors.

"We couldn't get back up after the Stratford match," Martin coach Joni McCoy said. "Revenge (for last year's semifinal loss) shouldn't be a factor. That was last year. This is this year."

Westlake had more trouble in its 25-20, 25-19 semifinal victory over a very scrappy Dulles team. The Vikings had posted back-to-back upsets of Cypress Creek and Clear Creek the day before.

Dulles could not match Westlake's power at the net, but gave the Chaps fits with its scrappy defense. Bennett relied on his depth in the second game, making a number of substitutions that kept the Chaps rolling.

Led by the precise setting of tournament most valuable player Meghan Kainz, Westlake became an offensive machine in the finals. Most valuable hitter Lindsey Louis and middle Shannon Davis were virtually unstoppable.

Martin's victory over Stratford denied the Spartans a chance to avenge last year's loss to Westlake in the 5A state championship match.

"I think Martin outplayed us at the net," Stratford coach Becky Palermo said. "They terminated the ball better than we did, they made us fairly predictable, they served real tough and we hit a lot of balls into the block."

The third-place match saw Stratford take out Dulles 25-14, 25-19, 21-25, 25-12.

The Vikings were not able to regain the level of play they displayed in the previous matches. The Spartans got consistently good play from tournament most valuable setter Michelle Moriarty and fellow all-tournament choices Melissa Caldwell and Anna Shlimak.

"We had a tough time with their jump serves," Dulles coach Alice Fortes said. "We were sending a lot of easy balls over. They had Michelle in there and she was running that offense. We were playing defense a lot and couldn't generate any offense."

One constant was the exceptional play on defense displayed by Dulles throughout the three-day event. Senior Laura North was a deserving recipient of the tournament's most valuable defensive specialist award.

"I was very proud of our defense," Fortes said. "Laura has such heart and determination. She is one of our team captains and has led this team for three years."

Friendswood made one of the best turnarounds in the tournament. After struggling in their first two matches, including a dismal second-round loss to Stratford, the 4A Mustangs bounced back to win the consolation title with an 18-25, 28-26, 25-13, 25-21 win over 5A power Cinco Ranch.

It was the third successive outstanding effort for Friendswood, which reached the consolation finals with victories over Elkins, Deer Park and San Antonio O'Connor.

Cypress Creek captured fifth place by beating Tomball 18-25, 25-19, 25-17. The scheduled best-of-five match was shortened due to the fact that the two teams had played each other the night before in a bitterly fought District 16-5A match. Cypress Creek also won that two-hour match in five games.

O'Connor claimed the Silver Division title with a 20-25, 25-21, 25-23 win over New Braunfels.