Volleyball: Sterling City knocks out Buena Vista in 1A match

Buena Vista High School’s volleyball season came to an end Tuesday with a Class 1A bi-district playoff loss to Sterling City.

First-year Lady Longhorns head coach Cherokee Roberts thinks this was a result decided much earlier in the season, however.

Sterling City never trailed and was only tied three times during its 25-17, 25-11, 25-16 victory in UTPB’s Falcon Dome.

Though Buena Vista (18-13) played plenty of competitive points, its composure went south enough times to help Sterling City (22-18) crank out 17 service aces and go on several extended runs that spelled the difference.

“This makes me want to increase the kind of people we are playing,” Roberts said. “We need to make (the pre-district schedule) tougher so we can prepare for matches like this a little bit better.

“We can play at this level and I’m ready to see it so hopefully next year we will.”

Buena Vista can hope that since only one senior graduates out of its starting lineup.

But Sterling City also only had two starting seniors and was led in kills by freshman Savannah Jones with 10, while sophomore Haley Smith had nine. Also, freshman Trisha Horwood helped direct the offense with 23 assists.

The Lady Eagles — who advanced to play Marfa in the area round at a site and time to be determined later this week — did have a little leadership from upperclassmen, as senior Whitney Myrick had seven kills while junior Allison Sulivant cranked out eight of the team’s aces.

“This is my third year in the playoffs and I just told (the younger players) to act like it’s just another game,” Myrick said. “We could’ve played better, but I guess we did pretty good.”

Sterling City toughened itself up the first two weeks of the season by stepping up to play in the Denver City Tournament and the Nita Vannoy Invitational, hosted by San Angelo Central.

The polish was evident most of the way, though Buena Vista did well to work out of a 9-3 deficit in the third set and earn 10-10 and 11-11 ties. Buena Vista still was within 17-16 when Sterling City went on its final run of eight points for the victory behind four aces by Jones.

Buena Vista was led by eight kills and one block by Danyelle Dillard while Kasandra Sherwood added four kills.

“We just couldn’t bring it, but we can play a lot better and it’s going to improve us for next year playing bigger schools like this,” Roberts said. “I think if we would’ve brought our game it would’ve been a totally different match, but we’ll get there.”