Cowgirls fall to Prosper in bi-district playoffs

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Anjali Krishna

Coppell senior middle hitter Madison Gilliland and Coppell junior outside hitter Abby Hendricks block against Prosper at Frisco Heritage High School at the Class 6A Region I bi-district playoffs on Friday. Coppell lost to Prosper 3-2 and ended its playoff run.

Anjali Krishna, Co-Sports Editor

FRISCO – A bright set of coyote eyes painted on the wall and an audience dressed in green or red watched as the lead slowly slipped away from the Cowgirls and the spirit drained slightly from their eyes early in the third set at Frisco Heritage High School at the Class 6A Region I bi-district playoffs.

As the referee makes the final call to give Prosper the 21-25, 22-25, 25-20, 25-16, 15-5 victory over Coppell, the Eagles fans and players erupt in celebration. The noise in the room is deafening for a moment and Coppell pauses for a moment before realizing its season is over.

For the first two sets, it seemed that Coppell would be able to pull off the upset they had been gearing towards the whole season – running its middles, executing its game plan and largely avoiding Prosper’s pin hitters. 

But entering the third set, communication fell through, and with it, Coppell’s passing ability. 

“We still played hard but we had little errors here and there,” Coppell sophomore outside hitter Reagan Engler said. “We got in our heads when we didn’t start off strong. We were thinking too much and we really wanted to win the third set but we gave up a little bit. Then they started to come back and we mentally weren’t there.”

Prosper quickly gained a lead and turned the tables, taking hold of the last three sets and the match.

“[In the] first two sets we did a really good job of keeping them out of our system and putting our offense towards their setters.” Coppell coach Julie Price said. “They’ve got really dynamic pins so when we weren’t able to keep them out of our system, they started getting into their rhythm and we struggled to get our footing again.”

With Coppell coming in from fourth place to play the district champion, both teams knew the matchup would be a difficult one, as Coppell played five-setters with Plano West and gave Sachse a close three-set loss.

“I’m a sore loser but I wanted to be OK with the outcome,” Price said. “Obviously, I wanted to win that and be playing next week but you want to play your best volleyball at the end of the season and that is the best volleyball we’ve played. I’m super proud of my kids, we’ve battled a tremendous amount of things in this COVID-19 volleyball season and we’re OK with this.”

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