EDMOND — Despite a late swoon at the end of the regular season, the Mustang volleyball team was still in the same position of every team that made the postseason.
All it needed was a couple of wins in the regional tournament and it would advance to the state tournament.
The 15th-ranked Broncos were able to get one of those victories when they knocked out Putnam City North at the regional tourney. They couldn’t get the second, as they fell to No. 2 Edmond Santa Fe in hardearned straight sets at ESF.
“I think we had a game plan to come out, play with no fear, just kind of let it all hang out and have fun,” Mustang coach Blake Newman said. “I felt like, for the most part, that’s what we did. We showed up, and we played with heart. I think we got outplayed. Santa Fe is a good team. They were making plays tonight. They made a few more than we did.”
After dropping the first set, the Broncos were aggressive to start the second set and took the game to the Wolves.
Led by the serving of Ryley Bowden, Mustang grabbed a 20-16 lead. Santa Fe was forced to call a timeout and it looked like Mustang High School was on its way to earning its first set.
However, ESF came out of timeout and turned the momentum around. They outscored the Broncos 9-1 and won the set 25-21.
The third set started just like the second. With Kiana Smith and Mikayla Eagle pounding hits against the Wolves, Mustang once again held a 19-16 advantage.
Yet, Santa Fe went on another run to earn the 25-23 win to earn the set and match.
“I think that it’s just all about playing clean, and what I mean by that is just handling the ball, getting your setter into the right position where they can’t tell where we’re actually going to feed the ball to. I just felt like our serve-receive kind of waned a little bit there in that critical situation,” Newman said. “Hats off to Santa Fe because they don’t lollipop serve. They don’t make it easy. They bring it. They’re a tough serving team. They walk the line on missing serves, yet serving super aggressive, and they were very successful in that tonight.”
In Newman’s first season as head coach, the Broncos finished with an 18-19 record. They are one year removed from playing in the 6A state championship game, so expectations were high.
“I think this year was disappointing from a program standpoint. We had some girls who had some experience,” Newman said. “We definitely had talent. We just couldn’t reach our potential. But I felt like throughout the year, one thing we did learn to do is play with heart and lay it all out there, and I think that’s what you saw tonight.”