Halfway through district, the varsity volleyball team is 6-1 and in a three-way tie for first place.

“At the beginning of the season we had young kids who had a lot of potential and we were really excited to be able to play with that potential,” senior Sydney Harter said. “As the season progressed we continuously got better and more fluent and confident on the court.”

They kicked off district Sept. 11 at home by sweeping the Hawks 3-0, with a close first set 25-23 win and then picked up steam with 25-14 and 25-17 set wins. 

The team dropped the next match at Round Rock 3-0, Sept 15. The Dragons were undefeated and in sole possession of first place until Friday’s loss to Westwood in four.

“Round Rock, they’re a hard team to beat,” Harter said. “They’re very veteran-ed. They have a lot of seniors who have been playing almost all their lives. They’re just a hard team to beat.”

The girls bounced back from the Round Rock loss with five consecutive wins, beating Pflugerville, Cedar Ridge and Stony Point on the road and snagging wins over McNeil and Westwood at home. The Westwood match, Sept. 25 was pivotal in the team cementing their place in the top of District 13-6A. The Lady Raiders dropped the first two sets, 22-25, 19-25 and were in a must-win third set situation. They won three straight to take the match and improve to 4-1 in district. The win was even more substantial considering the team played before a smaller than usual crowd, with many students at Bible Stadium for the varsity football game against Westwood.   

“Recently at the Westwood game we played with our potential and it was an amazing game. Like we’ve never played that good before and it’s really exciting…hopefully we’re going to go far in playoffs this year.” -Sydney Harter

“It was crazy because at first I thought, ‘We’re gonna lose if we don’t win the next set’ and then we won and we just took that momentum and we ran with it,” senior Khourtni Thompson said. “It was hard for them to catch up to that. So that gave us a big boost.”

They wrapped up the first round of district with a three set sweep at Stony Point Oct. 2, winning 25-15, 25-21, 25-21. With Round Rock dropping the match to Westwood the same night, the Lady Raiders find themselves moving from second place into a three-way tie for first with Round Rock and Westwood.

The team starts the second round of district at Hendrickson, Oct. 6 at 6:30 p.m. For live updates of games, follow the team on Twitter @RouseRaidersVB.