The high school volleyball playoffs begin Monday and conclude Nov. 16-19 with the UIL state tournament at the Culwell Center in Garland.
Here are some key area storylines to keep an eye out for:

Can Brandeis win it all again?
The Broncos reached the summit last November, rallying to defeat Keller in five sets to claim their first UIL Class 6A state championship.

This year, though, Brandeis has experienced a Shakespearean reality — “uneasy is the head that wears a crown.” The Broncos received early glimpses of such in the manner in which opponents celebrated beating them.

“Just the mentality of looking across the net and everybody’s that beat us all season, it’s a dogpile,” Brandeis coach Maddie Williams said. “You have this expectation and everybody’s, ‘What happened to Brandeis? What happened to Brandeis?’ We lost 10 seniors. Not only losing talent, but we’re losing 10 leaders, and I think that’s been a huge, huge adjustment for us.”

The Broncos graduated the likes of Jalyn Gibson, Carlee Pharris, Leila Smalls and Dani Gray, and filling the void has at times produced a mixed bag. At moments, the team has looked as if it might be on the cusp of putting the pieces together. At others, including the District 28-6A finale vs. Reagan, the team has struggled. Brandeis lost in five sets to Reagan on Oct. 25, including a 15-0 tally in the decisive final frame.

Williams sensed early on that the pressure of being a reigning state champion was wearing on her team. So during a meeting, she created a fresh start. There would be no more mention of 2021.

“We cannot sit here and compare,” Williams told her team during the meeting. “Last year was the dream team. That was one-in-a-million. We’re a different team. Every year, it’s going to be a different team, whether you win state or not.”

Brandeis hopes it can turn to its big-stage experience — Emma Halstead, Austin Smoak, Sophia Kuyn, Samantha Valadez and Lola Isaeff all played in the state final — to make another run at winning another Region IV-6A title, starting with a bidistrict match vs. Steele at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Alamo Convocation Center.

The Broncos will have to navigate a landscape that includes Clark, Reagan, Harlan, New Braunfels and Austin-area foes Lake Travis, Dripping Springs and Westlake to return to Garland.

“At state, I had people around me, and I just felt being in that environment, it just brought over some confidence that I could do it,” said Isaeff, a sophomore outside hitter. “I just want to put the ball down. We don’t like losing — no one likes losing. I just like doing it for my team. When we get momentum, everyone just lifts us. It’s a good feeling.”

Will Smithson Valley snap first-round woes?
In each of the previous two seasons, the Rangers were left to ponder what could have been. They breezed through district play, posting back-to-back 14-0 records, only to lose to Madison in five-set heartbreakers in Class 6A bidistrict encounters on each occasion.

Were the setbacks a matter of not being tested enough during league play? Or was it as simple as one team being a bad matchup vs. another?

“Our competition was good, but we got to playoffs and it was really like, ‘Hello. This is real. Here you go.’ “Smithson Valley senior Lillie Johnson said.

The Rangers dropped from 6A to 5A during the UIL’s biennial realignment and reclassification last February, and were grouped in a district with New Braunfels Canyon, Boerne Champion and Kerrville Tivy, all teams that have advanced to a regional final in the previous five seasons.

As Smithson Valley heads into Monday’s first-round match vs. Hays at Canyon Lake High school, sharing the District 26-5A crown with New Braunfels Canyon, it feels it is more battle-tested this time around.

“I think that definitely, definitely really prepares us for playoffs,” Johnson said. “I’m excited, and hopefully it’ll be a long, long run.”

If a four-set win vs. New Braunfels Canyon on Oct. 25 is any indication, the Rangers might be trending in a good direction.

“We worked so hard,” Smithson Valley senior Emily Wertz said. “It didn’t matter if we did 40 sprints or zero, we were working hard. The energy at every practice has been so high. I’m so proud of this team.”

A familiar feeling for the Mules
Three years ago, Alamo Heights coach Alex Bothe assumed the reins of a program that had slipped a little bit after appearances in the Region IV-5A tournament in 2014 and 2016.

The Mules needed a second-half surge in district play to qualify for the playoffs in 2018 and missed the postseason in 2017, but under Bothe immediately found lightning in a bottle.

Despite having only two seniors and playing every match on the road because of a campus-wide construction project that included the tearing down and rebuilding of the gymnasium, the Mules breezed through district and earned their first trip to the UIL state tournament.

Back then, Alamo Heights competed in a district with San Antonio ISD schools. This year, the Mules rolled through a league that was comprised of San Antonio ISD squads and MacArthur, and appear poise for another deep run.

“It has been full circle,” Bothe said. “That’s kind of how we’re looking at it. I’m hoping it’s going to be the same.”

Alamo Heights begins pursuit of a possible second appearance at the state tournament in four seasons when it travels to play at South San at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. If it gets past that match, a second-round matchup could await vs. defending regional champion and former district foe New Braunfels Canyon, which will be without standout setter Megan Hawkins, who was lost for the rest of the season after being injured last week in a car accident.

Five of Alamo Heights’ six seniors were at the state tournament in 2019, led by standout Hannah Whittingstall. The Mules appear to be in prime form, going 16-0 during league play and losing in five sets in a warm-up match last Friday vs. O’Connor.

“We wanted to step it up, and I think we did that,” Alamo Heights senior outside hitter Kieran Norris said after her team’s district title-clinching win vs. MacArthur in its final home match on Oct. 21. “We stayed consistent and we really tried to make it fun.”

Brahmas move down, move up
The playoffs every year seems to produce a story of a team breaking through after years of coming up short.

This year, the feel-good tale might belong to MacArthur.

The Brahmas clinched their first playoff berth since 2016, finishing second to Alamo Heights in District 27-5A. They play Medina Valley in the first round at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Taylor Field House.
MacArthur’s journey to this moment has been a trying one. Once a perennial postseason contender while competing vs. fellow North East ISD schools, the Brahmas have found the going tough the past few seasons when the league, already tough with the likes of Reagan, Churchill and Johnson and the emergence of Madison, became even fiercer when the addition of Clark and Brandeis.

But with a declining enrollment, the Brahmas were reclassified from 6A to 5A by the UIL in February. The move paid immediate dividends as MacArthur, winner of 14 of its last 16 matches, is playoff-bound for the first time in six years, when it was led by the 1-2 punch of Mallory Potts and Madison Trawick and lost to Austin Westlake in four sets in bidistrict.

“I think it shows that our team is really good and we worked really hard to get to this point,” MacArthur senior middle hitter Kaylen Lembcke said. “I’m just really excited to go to the playoffs. It’s been really cool to see our team grown.”

terrence@terrencesports.com
Twitter: @sa_terrence1