The Gazette-Enterprise

SAN ANTONIO — The Lady Matadors (27-13, 10-2) have come to know what to expect from hitters Marquisha Matthews, Alex Bothe and Brooke Abrameit.

But by this point in the season, so does Seguin’s opponents.

That’s why head coach Robin Gerlich has been working on a strategy to spread the ball around even more, utilizing the size of players like Lauren Muenchow.

On Monday night against Brackenridge, that tactic was executed to perfection, as the Lady Matadors bounced the Lady Eagles in the bi-district round of the state playoffs in three easy games, winning 25-13, 25-14, 25-10.

Seguin’s attack began and ended with Muenchow, who posted the Lady Mats’ first and last kills of the match.

“We are really trying to putLauren more in the offense as we go along in the playoffs because we know other teams are going to key on Marquisha and Alex and Brooke,” Gerlich said. “We’ve been working on that all season, so we’re really excited about how that’s coming along — she’s really doing a lot of good things.”

Junior Megan Reiley got the match off to a positive start for Seguin by hitting a couple of aces right off the bat — later finishing with a match-high five.

From there, Muenchow took over the net, posting a couple of blocks and some very strong kills that gave her team an early double-digit lead at 15-5.

More than a few unforced errors from Brackenridge gave Seguin an advantage that it really didn’t need, as the gold and black attack finished off the set with a 25-13 win.

If game one had Muenchow’s fingerprints all over it, then the second game belonged to Matthews, who came off the bench to help her team notch another lopsided win.

Matthews rifled a kill off the shoulder of Brittany May — Brackenridge’s leading scorer — to make the count 18-10 in favor of Seguin, and the Lady Mats cruised to pull within a game of the sweep.

Matthews continued to show exactly why she’s known as one of the most explosive players in the district in the final set, scoring four of her team’s first eight points.

And although the match came to an end relatively quickly, Gerlich praised the Lady Eagles’ ability to keep multiple points alive.

“They put some rallies together our girls looked at us and said, ‘They’re scrappy, they can dig,’” Gerlich said. “They gave us some really good defense out there, but I felt that our offensive attack really kind of took over in the game.”

The Lady Matadors turned an 8-5 lead into another one-sided affair in game three, winning by 15 points as Muenchow capped the victory with one final kill.

It was an especially sweet win for Gerlich, who has turned the Matador volleyball program into one of the area’s best in three short years.

“I personally don’t even know how long it’s been (since Seguin won a playoff match),” Gerlich said. “But I can tell you that I remember playing in a district with some of these (SAISD) schools and we couldn’t get out of that district.”

Matthews paced the team with her 13 kills, while Bothe finished with eight. Kelly Koenig led Seguin with 35 assists, while Megan Roy posted 26 digs.

Muenchow finished with five block sin the win, with Abrameit adding 15 digs and five kills.

The Lady Matadors now await the winner of tonight’s Marble Falls/Dripping Spring match in the area round of the playoffs, which will be played either Thursday, Friday or Saturday at a time and location to be decided later.

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