More than a decade has passed and Meaghan Patterson can vividly recall so many of the details of a watershed moment in San Antonio high school volleyball history.

Patterson still remembers — without hesitation — the date the match was played. She remembers the crowd that Tuesday night in November 2009 at UTSA’s Convocation Center, and how it kept growing and growing until officials had to open the venue’s upper deck.

More than anything, Patterson can’t forget how she and O’Connor knocked off nationally-ranked Reagan in four sets in a UIL Class 5A (now 6A) third-round contest before an estimated 2,100 fans.

“You can ask any of us who played in it, it’s the greatest game that I can remember playing in my entire career,” said Patterson, who was a senior middle hitter that year and is now an assistant coach at Warren. “It was just so emotional. We had such a huge crowd there. It’s almost indescribable. It just still gives me the chills when I think about it.

“It was an awesome environment to play in. Not a lot of girls ever get to play in an environment like that, especially in a high school game, until they get to state. To play in a game that had that much energy was great.”

O’Connor and Reagan resume their rivalry on Tuesday when they meet in a regional semifinal match at 6 p.m. at Littleton Gym. It will be the 12th time in 21 seasons that the teams will square off during the postseason. They also met in 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2015, 2017 and 2018.

Reagan leads the all-time series 6-5, but O’Connor has won the last three playoff encounters.

“O’Connor and Reagan are mirror images of each other,” former Reagan coach Mike Carter said, referring to how Reagan was opened in 1999 to alleviate overcrowding at Churchill, which had advanced to the UIL state tournament a year earlier, and O’Connor was opened in 1998 to alleviate overcrowding at Clark, which had been at state three years earlier.

“Both programs had city- or state-recognized programs that our kids and families built their expectations from. Both created heated district rivalries with the “parent” school. Both were fortunate to have amazing players, supportive communities, and strong district play to prepare them for playoff. Whenever you watch a Reagan vs. O’Connor match, you know you are going to see two teams with lots of kids that are going to be playing at the next level, and the match will be intense. I think both programs use this matchup as a measuring stick for where they are at.”

Today, O’Connor is the team on top. The Panthers (22-0) haven’t lost a set this season, and with the likes of Terez Chavez, Lexi Davila, Bryshanna Brown and Mackenzie Mahr leading the way, are aiming for their third trip to the state tournament in four seasons. In 2017 and 2018, O’Connor defeated Reagan en route to state.

“I think it’s now great to see how O’Connor’s seen as the team to beat,” Patterson said. “It’s just a good feeling knowing that we helped paved that path. It’s a very prideful thing.”

In the early stages of the series, O’Connor’s pride was always bruised when it came to playing Reagan. The Rattlers won five of the first six meetings, including the 2005 showdown that gave an indication of what to come.

“I remember Reagan being a top quality program and there was a sense of intimidation when we were scheduled to play them, so it was important to remember to focus on what we can control,” said former O’Connor standout Alyssa Meuth Latham, who played in the 2005 and 2006 playoff matches before going on to become an All-SEC performer at Alabama. “It was exciting to be part of O’Connor’s program as it grew to eventually be on a level playing field with Reagan and to watch O’Connor’s program grow even more after my graduation.”

In a second-round match 15 years ago at the Alamo Convocation Center, O’Connor won the first two sets to stun Reagan and grab an early advantage.
Behind Division I outside hitters Megan York and Sarabeth Peele, the Rattlers regrouped and won the next three frames and eventually earned their first trip to the state tournament.

“If you had asked me prior to the match if I thought that the game would spark the rivalry to where it is now, I would have said no,” said former Reagan setter Sarah Alisaleh, who was a junior in 2005 and went on to a standout career at Division I Austin Peay. “If you had asked me that same question after set two, I would have told you this would now be up there with the Reagan vs. Churchill matches we looked forward to each year. We always had something to prove against opponents like that, and now with O’Connor being one of the top in the city, it’s safe to say that this rivalry will continue for years to come.”

Reagan defeated O’Connor in the regional quarterfinals in 2006, 2007 and 2008, the latter coming when the Panthers were the area’s top-ranked club.

“In 2008, we thought we had a good chance,” said former O’Connor outside hitter Kendall Soler, who is now a project designer at a construction, architecture and interior design firm in Pittsburgh and a middle-school volleyball coach. “I think a lot of it was mental, going against the taller girl. The rivalry was definitely there with Clark and O’Connor, but I think we really valued the Reagan rivalry a little bit more because we just couldn’t get past them.”

O’Connor hosted Reagan in the 2009 season opener and Soler and other seniors on the 2008 squad were in attendance. With their faces painted and donning T-shirts with the word WAR — Win Against Reagan — splashed across the front, they supported their alma mater.

“We wanted to show that O’Connor was good enough to get past them,” Soler said.

Reagan, though, prevailed in five sets. But the closeness of the match set the stage for what would transpire three months later.

With a roster with eight Division I prospects — Kayla Keller (Central Florida), Preslie Alexander (Texas State/New Mexico State), Lindsay Hill (Stephen F. Austin), Kacy Griffin (Houston), Kayci Evans (Baylor), Rachel James (Texas State), Bailey Shurbet (Kansas State/Wake Forest) and Brooke Sassin (Mississippi State/Kansas State/TCU) — the Rattlers had a 43-1 record and were ranked as high as No. 2 in the nation.

O’Connor was 38-3 and had 10 players who played in college — Dominique Gonzalez (Penn State), Lauren Bohlen (Sam Houston State), Renee Ramirez (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi), Kaelen Valdez (Angelo State), Stacie Murrah and Meg Umbel (both Tarleton State), Patterson, Sarah Cardenas and Beth Soukup (all Incarnate Word) and Taylour Toso (Texas-Dallas).

Soukup had the match of her life, overcoming a tweaked right ankle to produce 15 kills, a .433 hitting percentage, and four of her team’s 10 aces as the Panthers prevailed 25-27, 27-25, 25-15, 25-21 before an overflow crowd.

“Going into our senior year, it was like this is our last chance to make this happen, to slay the dragon,” Patterson said. “That was what we focused on — doing it for each other, doing it for coach (Yami) Garcia. I think that is what we fueled us to that victory.”

The teams met again in 2011, with Reagan rallying after dropping the opening set to prevail in four frames in the second round en route to the regional final. Four years would go by before the next matchup, and the development of that contest fed into a perceived David-vs.-Goliath narrative.

In 2015, O’Connor finished fourth in district behind Brennan, Brandeis and Clark, and was only one win ahead of Warren for the final playoff spot. It didn’t matter when the squads met at Alamo Convocation Center. Reagan had lost to Churchill in five sets in the regional final in 2013 and in five sets in the second round in 2014 to eventual regional finalist Clark.

The Rattlers felt 2015 would be the year that they would break through and go to state. They entered a third-round showdown with O’Connor having won 29 of 31 matches.

O’Connor overcame deficits of 9-3 and 24-23 to win the opening stanza 26-24. Reagan, behind Division I prospects Elissa Barbosa (Georgetown), Isabell De La Rosa (DePaul), Faith Squier (Houston/Cal State-Fullerton) and Camryn Ennis (Kansas/Texas A&M), won the second and third sets and appeared poised to close out the match.
Allison Fields, now playing at Texas A&M, powered O’Connor to a win in the fourth set to force a decisive fifth set.

In the tiebreaker, Reagan led 6-5 before the Panthers scored eight of the next 11 points for a 13-9 advantage. Reagan closed within 14-13 before O’Connor prevailed on a block from senior Zayra Lobato.

“It just felt like surreal,” said Squier, who now lives and works in Los Angeles. “It’s always tough after a loss, but it doesn’t really seem real that it’s over. They’re over there celebrating and you wish you could go back, but it’s already over. We had a tough game against them. They just worked really hard. You never can take a set for granted with them.”

If 2015 was a stunner, then 2017 was the shocker of shockers.

O’Connor had topped Reagan earlier that season in the final of the Fraulein Volleyfest in New Braunfels in August, erasing six match points in the second set to win in three. But the Rattlers were ranked No. 1 in the nation by several publications, had a 44-1 record, were riding a 25-match winning streak, and were seeking a fairytale ending for Carter, who had announced it would be his final season at Reagan.

The Panthers scored the match’s first five points and never looked back, capitalizing on their trademark defense to shackle the Rattlers’ attack.

“The first five points really did it for us,” said O’Connor setter Terez Chavez, who was a freshman in 2017. “We scored quickly. After that, it was just coach Garcia telling us, ‘You know, they’re going to get a point or two, they’re going to get a big hit or two, as long as you stay two, three points ahead of them, you’re going to win the game.’ I never will forget that game. That is a game that kind of changes how you think about volleyball, how you feel, and it makes you think that anything is possible.”

Fifteen years ago, that wasn’t the emphasis. It was just two teams, opened a year apart and with similar backstories, squaring off in the second round of the playoffs. What has followed has been an intense, high-stake feud.

“We always knew after finishing up our regular-season play that they were going to be another stop on the road and a hurdle that we had to get through,” said former Reagan outside hitter Tyler Elley, who was a sophomore called up to varsity for the playoffs in 2005 and later played at Texas Tech. “We knew it was always going to be a tough match, and we had to mentally prepare. It’s really neat to hear that the rivalry has progressed and it’s still there.”

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