In Cypress (TX) the St. John’s Girls’ Varsity Volleyball team faced the very competitive home school team sponsored by the Texas Tornados Club.  The teams had met before in a September tournament where the Mavericks fell to their opponents in 2 games in a best of 3 match.  In today’s best of 5 match, the Mavericks were without captain and starter Alex Beckham, and a changed line-up required the Mavericks to adapt their play to fill in for Alex.  In the first game the Tornados team maintained a strong lead and took the first set 16-25.  The Tornados then started the second set with a strong lead, but gradually as the Mavericks began to be comfortable with the new rotation, they slowly chiseled away their opponent’s lead point by point, and then surged to a tie game at 24, and later win at 26-24.  The third game was a virtual replay, with unforced errors keeping the game close until once again the Mavericks finished well to win 26-24.  In the 4^th game, the Tornados team battled back and gained a 10 point lead on the Mavericks, which the Mavs were able to cut in half by the end of the game which ended for a loss 20-25.  At the coin toss prior to the 5^th game, the Mavericks lost the serve, but ultimately won the match by a real show of strength to win 15-9 in the short tie-breaker. 

Every player on the team contributed to this successful outcome, including the injured Alia Nazir who cheered her team on from the bench.  Every player came up with a big play to make a difference in this outcome and every player left feeling very satisfied about getting a win against a team that had beat them handily earlier in the season.  This extends the Maverick’s winning streak to 9 consecutive matches.  The team faces Episcopal on Thursday, for an important counter match to be played on the Episcopal campus with a late start of 7:30 pm.

w  16-25 / 26-24 / 26-24 / 20-25 / 15-9