Alamo Falls in Semifinals

June 30 – Alamo had its bubble pierced at Reliant Center Wednesday afternoon – Lisa Pierce, that is. Alamo had no answer for the explosive outside hitter who led First Alliance to a surprising 22-25, 25-17, 25-23, 20-25, 15-12 upset over the defending national champions in the 16 Open semifinals of the 2004 USA Jr. Olympic Girls Volleyball Championships.

The loss left Alamo with a bronze Open medal, which is still the best performance by a Texas team in this year’s national championships, but short of last year’s first ever Open championship by a Texas team.

“They brought their best,” Alamo coach Keith Wilson said following the two-hour match. “They served tough and we just didn’t pass well. We made a lot of mistakes that we usually don’t make.”

The match was played on an interior court and by the time game five started, the crowd was packed so tightly that people were standing on chairs on adjacent courts to catch the action. What they saw was an unheralded First Alliance team coming off a dramatic five-game (15-13) win over national power KIVA and obviously on a roll.

“They had a lot of energy from when they played KIVA and it obviously carried over against us,” said Wilson.

In fact, First Alliance (unranked nationally) could easily have swept Alamo (ranked #2 nationally by PrepVolleyball.com) had Mary Batis not led an Alamo rally from a 20-14 deficit in game one to a 25-22 win.

Blowing a big lead in game one didn’t seem to bother First Alliance, which dominated games two and three behind the relentless attack of Pierce, excitable fellow OH Katie Eberling and a strong inside game. Alamo was on its heels for most the match and at times seemed completely out of synch, making uncommon serving, passing and hitting errors.

“I don’t know whether it was because we were expecting to play KIVA or hadn’t seen that team before, but I mean that was a great team. They took it to us,” said Wilson.

With their backs to the wall, Alamo’s stars took over in game four. Setter Samantha Dabbs turned to Batis and Jenny Banse with a little Sarah Harris and Jessica Glover thrown in as Alamo jumped out quick. Despite letting a 17-9 lead slip to 17-14, Alamo controlled the game from start to finish and seemed, for the moment anyway, to have regained control of the match.

It wasn’t the case, however. Game five was all First Alliance, which jumped to a quick 5-1 lead behind two Piercing kills, a couple of Alamo hitting errors and a huge block. Alamo cut it to 5-4 on a Banse kill and a Celena Rendon ace, but that was as close as they would get.

Two Alamo serving errors and a hitting error spaced around an ace gave First Alliance a 12-7 lead. From there it was all Pierce and Eberling who put down any hopes of an Alamo rally.

After last year’s national championship, Wilson had said he was going to take a break from club coaching but decided to return prior to the season because “this age is an important time in these girls’ lives. They need some stability.” Despite the disappointing end, he still was happy with the decision.

“It was definitely worth it (coming back),” he said. “This is a great group of girls. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

------

The state’s other 16s teams, which had been among the nation’s best all season, struggled at the JOs.

Texas Tornados were the only other Top 10 team. Texas Advantage finished tied for 11th, Willowbrook finished tied for 15th, Austin Juniors finished 17th, Skyline finished tied for 23rd and Austin Metro finished tied for 27th.

------

In 18s Open Austin Juniors, one of the last teams to receive an open bid, had the best showing among Texas teams with a tie for 15th. There had been some discussion about whether Austin deserved an Open berth, but any questions were answered by Wednesday afternoon.

“Did we have something to prove?” coach Jason Landers said. “I think so. Not so much to what other people were saying but the girls wanted to prove it to themselves. They are competitors. People can say what they want to say about us, but they wanted to prove that, ‘hey we are a good volleyball team.’ They wanted to prove they deserved to be here.

“Before it started, I told them to just play hard and give it everything you’ve got. I told the seniors that this is the last time you will play together and you need to get out there and lay it on the line,” Landers continued. “After one match, the Team Z coach came up to me and said ‘way to silence the critics.’ So when it was over today I told that to the girls. I told them how proud I was of them.”

During the season Austin had to overcome the loss of start OH Lindsey Louis to an injury. “That was a tough loss for both the team and the girls,” Landers said, “We had to make a lot of adjustments. But this was a good way to end the season. I told them, ‘this is where you wanted to be, this is where you deserved to be and you came, you competed and you beat some good teams.’ ”

The wins included a victory over Milwaukee Sting, a team this Austin Juniors group had never beaten.

In other 18s Open action, the state's top-ranked 18s team, Texas Tornados, struggled on day one and never recovered, finishing 22nd. Houston Juniors, the other Open qualifier, finished tied for 27th.

------

The state’s 17 Open teams also struggled. North Dallas had the best finish with a tie for 19th. No other Open team finished in the top 20.

-------

18s - Sports Performance defeated Vision

17s - TCA defeated City Beach

16s - Milwaukee Sting defeated First Alliance

How The Texas Teams Fared

Complete Results