Friday, Oct. 03, 2008

Lady Jaguars Win First 2 in District

FMHS Volleyball

By John English

Contributing Writer

Flower Mound volleyball coach Marci Brinkman said her team played extremely well in last Friday’s victory against Hebron and said picking up a win in its district opener was very important for her team.

The Lady Jaguars will take on Southlake Carroll tonight, and Brinkman said she knows Flower Mound will have all that it can handle.

"It’s going to be a tough match, like every other match in our district," Brinkman said. "I know that our girls are already preparing for it ... Southlake is always one of those teams that has a great program. We don’t have a football game on Friday night, so we’re expecting a packed gym."

Brinkman said she was very pleased with her team’s effort in the game against Hebron last Friday.

"Our intensity was outstanding all the way through," Brinkman said. "The girls came in fired up for district. We’ve been working on a lot of things in practice about a better mentality in matches and fixing the mistakes that we could. Our team has a lot of talent, and our girls really stepped it up."

Brinkman said she had a couple of great individual performances against Hebron as well.

"Lizzie Theesfeld had a great match," Brinkman said. "I believe she had 12 kills and 19 digs. Kristen Rice also had 12 kills and played very well. Sara Rudeen had 11 kills and Colleen Duncan had seven, so we had a lot of girls step it up."

Brinkman said she feels picking up a victory against Hebron was very important.

"Our pre-season was so up and down," Brinkman said. "I think the girls needed this win to kind of prove to themselves that they are capable of beating those tough teams, and Hebron is a good team.

"With the things that we’ve been working on as far as working together as a team and really wanting to make a statement in that game, I think they felt a great sense of accomplishment that night."

The Flower Mound coach said she still thinks the best volleyball her team will play is yet to come.

"I feel like we do continue to improve, which is exciting, because I feel that we haven’t hit our peak yet as a team," Brinkman said. "There is still room for improvement, and I know they are going to work hard to get there, but I do feel like we’re in a good place right now."

Flower Mound defeated Lewisville 3-0 on Tuesday night and will play at 6 p.m. tonight against Carrroll at home.