The Coppell volleyball team knew that, coming off a loss to Flower Mound, it needed to respond on Tuesday against Flower Mound Marcus to not get swept for a second time in a row. 

The Cowgirls ended up falling to Marcus, 3-1 (25-20, 25-21, 25-21, 30-28), at the CHS Arena on Tuesday, and the message remains the same: wake up at the start of the match, not halfway through.

The first four sets were all heavily contested, with each team going punch-for-punch kept each point alive and to play for.

“It is going to take that kind of fight to survive in a district like this where everyone is fighting hard, every match is big, every play and point is bag so I’m really proud that they didn’t just give up because they totally could have,” Coppell coach Libby Pacheco said. 

 The match could’ve gone either way but it was the Marauders (19-5, 2-0 in District 6-6A) with all the momentum after taking the first two sets, leaving the Cowgirls (20-5, 0-2) with it all to do if they were to come away with anything from the game. 

“We finally just woke up and realized ‘hey, these are big games, there are no gimmes’ and we have to start finding ways to win regardless of whoever is on the other side,” Pacheco said. 

The third set, however, saw a completely different Coppell team, a Cowgirl team that seemed to have finally woke up and started to play.

“We realized that our energy in those first two sets was absolutely terrible and it just wasn’t us,” Coppell junior setter Taylor Young said. “Because we made ourselves lose the first two sets, we put the pressure on us that made us feel like we had to come back and that’s when everyone had to step up.” 

 In the fourth set, the Cowgirls pushed the Marauders to the absolute breaking point and it wouldn’t be until the 30th point where there was a breakthrough in the set. 

“In the third and fourth set, our potential showed and I’m really proud of how those [sets] carried out and the energy of the sets,” Young said. 

Coppell junior middle hitter Allie Stricker led the line with 15 kills and senior middle hitter Aley Clint and junior outside hitter added 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Defensively, senior libero Rebeca Centeno had 28 digs. Young ended the night with 41 assists.

The Cowgirls are on the road on Friday, where they will travel to Plano East. Play begins at 6:30 p.m.

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