The weight of expectations can be crushing. The pressure and scrutiny to fulfill them can become overbearing.

Don’t tell the Davenport High School volleyball team that. It doesn’t seem to have any issues with the heavy-is-the-head-that-wears-the-crown idiom.

The Wolves moved a step closer to defending their Class 4A state championship by rallying past Floresville 22-25, 25-17, 25-12, 25-13 on Friday in the Region IV-4A Division I final at Littleton Gym.

Davenport (39-8) will face nine-time state champion Bellville (43-5) in the state semifinals at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Toney Burger Center in Austin.

“At the beginning of the year, we made it clear to everybody that wasn’t on the team and everyone that was on the team (in 2023), that this is a new team and it’s a new year, and we want the same result,” Davenport junior setter/outside hitter Lexi Dahl said.

The Wolves are on the doorstep of attaining their goal after bouncing back from losing their first set during the playoffs.

Floresville (36-8), which was in a regional final for the first time after making the regional semifinals in 2022 and 2023, rode the play of Makenna Hertless, Giada Obregon, Sloane Paugh, Maddie Harden and Gabby Valadez to capture a back-and-forth first set. Floresville led 20-17, Davenport rallied to tie it at 21 before Paugh recorded a kill and ace and Hertless, who unofficially had 12 kills, and Emily Hutchinson each tallied a kill during a 4-1 run to close out the frame.

The teams were facing off for the second time this season. Davenport prevailed 14-25, 25-15, 25-20, 20-25, 15-8 on Sept. 20.

“I this it was more of ‘this-is-the-game-to-go-to-state’ type nerves,” Davenport junior setter/outside hitter Kamrynn Williams said. “Just like the first set was more like, ‘get them out, get a feel for the game and see what we’re going up against since we played them previously in the season.’ We don’t know what they’ve improved on. I feel like we were really trying to push ‘next-ball’ mentality, and I think we did a really good job of doing that today.”

The Wolves, receiving contributions from Dahl (19 kills), Williams (nine kills), Emily Williams (10 kills), McKenzie Meyers, Logan Strong and Katie Falcone, were methodically over the final three sets. They seized control early in each of the frames and held off Floresville.

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