Livingston volleyball ended a successful first year under Coach Casey Veen Saturday in the regional semifinal round of the playoffs at Leon High School. The opponent was the state’s top-ranked team in Salado, who won with scores of 25-19, 25-14 and 25-16.
“We were very competitive,” Veen said of the match. “The score doesn't necessarily reflect the long rallies that we were having. They have five (Division 1 college) athletes. We gave everything that we absolutely could. I thought, for playing against that caliber, we really gave them a great game of back and forth, crazy rallies, big blocks. It was a great match, a lot of energy. The fans traveled well, and it was exactly what you wanted a round three to be.
“If I was making a prediction, I think Salado is in the final match of the state championship. They're very talented, but I thought it was really good for our girls to see that type of caliber and those that are returning can strive to mimic and try to be as close to that as possible, because that's what it takes to go as far as we want to go. To be able to see it in real life and not just on film and to be on the receiving side, and having them hit that hard at us, and serve that hard, and having those big blocks, and being dug on our hardest attack – it really makes you think about volleyball and the strategy at hand.
“It gives us ammunition for next year of what we want to look like. Our hitter would crush the ball to their libero going to University of Louisiana-Lafayette. She would dig the ball up to the Indiana (commit) setter and she would set the ball to the Rice commit. It was great. We all knew what caliber was across the net from us, but they all went into the match thinking we could do this.”
Veen said Salado had the best team she has seen on the Class 4A level. She is also proud of the fact that Livingston was the only school from District 19-4A to advance into regionals. They reached the round by sweeping both Houston Austin in bi-district and Lumberton in area.
The Lions lose some key pieces to graduation off this year’s group, but will now have a full offseason to work toward building another winner.
“We have four seniors. Maddie Akers – we ran a 5-1, so she was the only setter on the court. So that's huge. She was the District 19-4A Setter of the Year. Then, we're losing Mary Martin. She's our right side and she's second team all-district this year. She was a really clutch player this year, came up and started really finding her stride. Corinne Henderson was first team all-district this year, a heavy hitter and hard hitter. Brinley Yantes, is also an outside hitter, positive energy, and a great support system there.
“We have a lot of key pieces still returning, where our entire defense still are all juniors. So, every passer is a junior, our middles are still coming back. We still have another outside coming back. The beauty of it all is that we have offseason, which a majority of the girls are still in. We're going to get a lot of one-on-ones and a lot of work.
“I feel like the energy surrounding this season with the amount of fans and all the talk and all the positive things that the girls have done together, I think maybe we can start something where all the girls want to participate. If we could get the girls involved, I think we have great potential of being that consistent force every year.”
