GARLAND — One player was hunched over, her head bowed as she stared at the court. A few feet away, two teammates consoled one another with an embrace. There were plenty of tears.

The New Braunfels Canyon volleyball team spent this season trying to erase the heartbreak of how its 2020 campaign ended. The Cougarettes’ 2021 season concluded with an even more devastating gut-punch.

Grapevine rebounded after losing the first two sets and stunned Canyon 18-25, 20-25, 25-20, 25-18, 15-10 Friday in a Class 5A state semifinal encounter at the Culwell Center. The Mustangs (22-17) advanced to play Lovejoy in the state final at 3 p.m. Saturday.

“It is a very big accomplishment that we made it here, but I think we definitely had the potential to keep going,” said Canyon senior libero Victoria Fontenot, who finished with 25 digs and two aces. “I’m pretty sure we all thought we had it. We didn’t produce the outcome that we wanted.”

And that, more than anything, probably will haunt the Cougarettes (43-9), who set a program record this year for single-season wins. They played masterfully for two sets, serving, blocking and passing well, and fending off each and every surge from Grapevine. Outside hitter Kyla Malone finished with 23 kills and 19 digs. Setter Megan Hawkins had 52 assists, 17 digs, three aces and 1.5 blocks. Middle blocker Courtney Pope tallied 12 kills, a .500 hitting percentage and four blocks. McKenzie Woitena chipped in 11 kills, Isabell Woo had 13 digs and Alyssa Koehl had 12 digs and two aces.

Then everything seemingly unraveled.

“I felt like they just came alive,” Canyon coach Heather Sanders said. “This game is a game of momentum, and when you start feeling it, and getting that groove, sometimes it’s hard to break. We’ve been on the other side of that. They got going and we couldn’t ever break into that lead.”

The momentum swing was glaring in the fourth and fifth sets. Grapevine used a 5-0 run in the fifth frame to break open a 6-6 tie. The Mustangs had an even more dramatic run in the fourth, scoring 12 of the final 14 points to turn a 16-13 deficit into a 25-18 run. Grapevine also had a 7-0 spurt in the frame, turning an 8-4 deficit into an 11-8 lead.

“It’s definitely tough to have to regroup, but we really tried our best to come in as a team and focus on our huddle and on our side,” Koehl said. “And I feel like, for the most part, we did a pretty good job at looking at each other and just lifting each other up.”

In the end, it wasn’t enough. Grapevine senior Janet DeMarrais, a Missouri signee, racked up 29 kills and 20 digs to pace the comeback. Setters Ella Davis and Mikayla Ethridge combined for 48 assists and kept the Cougarettes off-balance. Alea Lastinger had 17 kills.

“They just started picking up our tendencies,” Malone said. “We came in with a game plan, and they started to pick up on that and made their adjustments. We couldn’t adjust fast enough to the things they were doing on their side.”

terrence@terrencesports.com
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