The Gazette-Enterprise

NEW BRAUNFELS — The term “thriller” doesn’t even begin to describe the area playoff match that took place Tuesday night between the Seguin Lady Matadors (29-13) and the Dripping Springs Lady Tigers.

After falling behind 2-0 to Dripping Springs — the winners of District 26-4A and the No. 8-ranked team in the state — Seguin mustered the kind of heart and determination reserved for champions, completing an exhilarating 3-2 comeback win (23-25, 21-25, 25-19, 26-24, 15-9) in front of a frenzied crowd at Canyon High School.

“We were down on ourselves a little bit going into game three,” said head coach Robin Gerlich. “We had gotten to 15 before them every time, so (our team) knew that we were getting on a roll early in the game and all we had to do was get in there and get to game five.”

Seguin lost a 23-20 lead late in the first set, watching the Lady Tigers rip off five straight points to claim game one. Dripping Springs grabbed another win in game two, closing the set on a 7-3 run to push the Lady Mats to the brink of elimination.

But Seguin’s seniors refused to go out on the wrong side of a sweep, jumping out to an early 10-7 lead in the third game and later extending that advantage to as many as five at 22-17.

The Lady Matadors clinched the set on a block from Lauren Muenchow, which served as the official beginning of Seguin’s turnaround.

Still, the Lady Matadors needed yet another clutch win in game four to force a do-or-die fifth set. That’s when Seguin put forth its most impressive effort of the match, summoning the will to put aside an overturned point from the referee that helped the Lady Tigers post a 20-18 lead.

But Gerlich says it was nothing new for her squad.

“We do that every day in practice,” Gerlich said. “There’s a play going on and if we win the point, I say, ‘No, it’s not your point, it’s a bad call.’ Those are going to happen in games, you’ve got humans up there calling it and so you’re going to have mistakes.

“You’ve got to keep your composure.”

Junior Megan Reiley helped lead the resurgence with a pair of monster blocks, giving her team a 22-20 lead with the second of the two. After Dripping Springs rallied to tie the game at 24, Marquisha Matthews hit a kill to give Seguin game point, which was converted seconds later on a block from the duo of Matthews and Muenchow.

That set up a decisive fifth game, which the Lady Matadors had no intention of losing. Alex Bothe and Brooke Abrameit recorded kills to put Seguin ahead 10-5, and Matthews later capped the amazing comeback with her 22nd kill of the evening, sending the Matador faithful flooding out onto the court.

“It’s all about team,” Gerlich said. “We couldn’t have done it without any of our players.”

Bothe notched 14 kills in the match, while Muenchow had six kills and three blocks. Kelly Koenig dished out 47 assists and had 26 digs, while Abrameit recorded 30 digs and 10 kills. Megan Roy had 20 digs of her own, and Matthews and Reiley added five and three blocks, respectively.

The win marked yet another high point in the recent history of the Seguin volleyball program.

“To see where this program has come from four years ago with seven wins to heading to the regional quarterfinals is so exciting,” Gerlich said. “But we’re not finished yet.”

Seguin now advances to play Hutto on either Monday or Tuesday in the regional quarterfinals, with the time and location yet to be determined.

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