Playing and beating the same opponent more than once during the same season is supposed to be a tough chore.

But playing and beating the same team a third time? In a contest with the weight of season-long expectations and aspirations riding on it? In the same facility in which a year earlier the hopes and dreams of another campaign ended?

The Davenport High School volleyball team stared at all of those scenarios and didn’t blink, displaying skill and will en route to topping district foe Wimberley 26-24, 25-18, 26-24 in the Region IV-4A final at Littleton Gym on Saturday.

The Wolves (45-5) earned their first trip to UIL Class 4A state tournament and will play Celina (35-7) at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Culwell Center in Garland.

“It’s always nerve-wracking to play a team three times,” said Davenport coach Taylour Toso, a former standout at O’Connor who led the Wolves to the state tournament in only her second season as a head coach. “They’re kind of the same as us, where they returned a lot of their team this year. I knew it was going to be competitive and it was going to be who’s going to execute when it mattered, and it was us.”

Davenport, after holding on to win the opening set after squandering a late six-point lead and having little trouble in prevailing in the second frame, found itself one set from a trip to state.

“It was really hard because it’s the playoffs, and everyone wants to play better in the playoffs,” Davenport junior libero Logan Strong said. “I think we were all a little nervous, especially in the first set. You could see it on our faces. Being able to compete together, and knowing that we can perform well under pressure, has been good for us. Our coach did a really good job of calming us down. We all pitched in to do what we do best. All we had to do was play at that point.”

Wimberley, however, didn’t make it easy. Paced by Laney Hennessee, a junior outside hitter committed to Alabama, and sophomore outside hitter Cameron Thames, the Texans (36-8) led 24-19 in the third stanza and were one point for extending the contest to a fourth set. Hennessee had 18 kills and Thames added eight.

A kill by junior middle blocker Emily Williams earned a side-out for Davenport. Junior outside hitter Ashtan Dodson then stepped to the service line and served for four aces, including three in a row, as the Wolves reeled off the final seven points. They won on a kill from Talan Dodson, a senior outside hitter and Ashtan’s sister.

Talan Dodson had 13 kills, Ashtan Dodson totaled 10 kills and Williams added eight kills. Davenport had 11 aces.

“I had no doubts in my mind that if I got the serves over the net, my team would back me up and we’d be able to get these next points,” Ashtan Dodson said. “I just think that we know that we can do it. Nothing’s going to stop us from our goal — our goal is to win state. We just get a step closer every game, which makes it that much more exciting.”

Hawks soar to new heights
Roughly 8.5 miles from Littleton Gym, another area team also made history.

Harlan, behind balanced attacking led by Aniya Joseph, tough blocking and key serving, swept defending state champion Dripping Springs 25-20, 25-19, 26-24 to capture the Region IV-6A championship at Alamo Convocation Center.

The Hawks (44-5) will take on Katy Cinco Ranch (37-5) in UIL Class 6A state semifinals at 7 p.m. Friday in Garland. It will be the second meeting this season between the teams, with Harlan prevailing 25-16, 25-18 on Aug. 26 at the Leander Volleypalooza.

Saturday’s triumph was a sizeable step for Harlan, which was in its fourth straight regional tournament and during the previous two seasons had fallen in the semifinals to the eventual state champion — Dripping Springs in 2022 and Brandeis in 2021.

A day after outlasting Austin Lake Travis in five sets (29-27, 25-20, 24-26, 19-25, 15-13), Harlan had plenty of energy in reserves to knock off its second nationally ranked opponents — Lake Travis is No. 16 and Dripping Springs is No. 21 in the latest AVCA/USA Today Super 25 poll — in 17 hours.

The Hawks won the first two sets but trailed by seven halfway through the third frame before slowly chipping away at the deficit and taking a 25-24 lead and earning a match point. Senior Maddie Lee served an ace and Harlan was headed to state only five years after playing its first varsity season.

Pirettes fall just short
While Harlan and Davenport are headed to the state tournament, Poth came up one win short of doing the same.

The Pirettes, the area’s most successful program with nine state titles, fell to Columbus 25-15, 25-20, 25-18.

Columbus (43-5) is headed to state for the third year in a row and will face defending state champion Gunter in the Class 4A state semifinals at 11 a.m. Thursday in Garland. Gunter topped the Cardinals in last year’s state semifinals.

“It’s pressure, but I know that everybody has each other’s back on this team, and we all know what we’re capable of,” said Columbus senior outside hitter Ally Tribe, who signed with UTSA and finished with 13 kills and two aces. “We all have one goal — we want to win state. We don’t want to lose in semis anymore. We’ve got to get past (the regional final) to get there. We knew we had to push through.”

Tribe and Ember Mandola helped the Cardinals’ cause, teaming for a potent 1-2 punch that held off the Pirettes (25-27).

“I think most teams kind of focus in on Ally and then they kind of slow her down a little bit or block her, and it’ll leave me open sometimes,” said Mandola, who had 11 kills. “I feel like we’re both there for each other. If someone’s getting blocked or knocked down, one of us will pick each other up.”

The Pirettes picked themselves up after an early nine-match losing streak, winning nine in a row to earn their 24th berth in the regional tournament in the past 30 seasons. They were in the regional final for the first time since 2020.

“I’m just really proud of us,” said Poth senior outside hitter Sadie Drzymala, the only holdover who received meaningful playing time in 2020. “If you look at the beginning of the season till now, we’ve improved so much, and so many of us have stepped up. It’s been a dogfight, to say the least, and obviously, we didn’t get the win we wanted, but we did what we could do.

“The crowd, the fans, I love it all. We have a great student section, from our high schoolers to our elementary kids, making posters and cheering for us. It’s great.”

Poth gave its supporters plenty to cheer for throughout the contest behind the play of Chloe Conn (11 kills), Olivia West (six kills), Ryann Miller (six kills) and Drzymala (five kills), but a 7-1 run here and a 10-3 run there by Columbus proved too much to overcome.

“We weren’t all on the same page a few times,” Poth coach Patti Zenner said. “When we were, we did some really great things, just not enough of them.”

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