VOLLEYBALL ROUNDUP | Tournament play rules the land early in the season

Ever seen a dust devil?

It’s a whirlwind, kind of looks like a miniature tornado, caused – according to weather apps in a quick search – by uneven heating of earth that form an updraft when pockets of hot air are created, common especially in dry conditions. Dirt and all sorts of things are pulled inside, and begin to rotate wildly. It’s a real mess.

Dust devils are wild, chaotic, out of control — kind of reminiscent of the first few weeks of volleyball season.

Tournaments, play days, are everywhere, and you might have a 6A school like Duncanville playing a smaller-classification school, like Kilgore. This happens all the time, and often, the bigger school does not come out on top. Volleyball is similar to baseball in that it’s not strange to see a great small-school program beat a bigger program that simply has numbers.

Volleyball is very much underway here in Texas, and here are some results from the first week of play. Everything is just getting started; we’ve pushed our ETBlitz.com volleyball preview back in an effort to get with every coach in our coverage area, and you’ll be able to read that preview Saturday here on the site.

For now, here are early season results.

Kilgore (in the Tyler Tournament, at Tyler High School): Coach Mika Hubbard’s Lady Bulldogs went 1-2 in three games of best-of-three action (shortened from the normal best-of-five, for tournament purposes).

In a 14-25, 21-25 loss to Lindale, Kylie Herrin had four kills, six digs and two aces, and Elle Litchenburg had three kills, four assists, a dig and two aces.

Kilgore lost to Spring Hill, as well, 22-25, 11-25. Litchenburg had seven assists, three kills, two digs and a block; Herrin had seven digs and three kills; and Giselle Webster had two kills, a dig and two blocks.

KHS beat W.T. White in three, 18-25, 25-20, 25-21. Brittany Yzaguirre had seven kills, five digs and a block; Litchenburg had 16 assists, four kills, three digs, a block and an ace; Webster had six kills and three blocks; Herrin had 12 digs, four kills and an ace; and Molly Quine had four aces and eight digs.

The tournament continues through the weekend, and then on Tuesday, the Lady ‘Dogs travel to Harmony, a 4:30 p.m. freshmen-game start, with junior varsity and varsity to follow.

Leverett’s Chapel tops Union Hill: LC won its season opener over Union Hill, 26-28, 25-22, 25-14, 25-15.

Alyvia Page had 13 kills, 26 digs, six aces and two assists for the Lady Lions. Brynleigh Seymour had six kills, 15 digs and 10 aces. Palynn Butler had five kills, 10 digs and two aces, and Itzel Mata had two kills, 14 digs, 18 assists and four aces.

LC is competing in the Big Sandy Tournament this weekend; bracket play begins Saturday.

On Tuesday, the Lady Lions visit Waskom, a 4:30 p.m. JV start, varsity to follow.

White Oak: Spring Hill escaped White Oak’s gym with a 25-23, 25-15, 18-25, 25-21 win over the Lady’Necks on Tuesday.

For White Oak, Andee Bridges had 14 kills, four digs and two aces. Addy Young had 26 assists. Londyn Baker had six kills and two aces, and Peyton Thompson had four digs.

Elizabeth Corbitt had 17 kills, five digs and two aces for Spring Hill.

Coach Morgan High’s team is in a tournament at Central Heights in Nacogdoches this weekend. They lost in three (again, tournament-shortened games) to Marshall, 21-25, 25-16, 24-26, in tournament play, and also to Henderson, another ETBlitz.com-coverage area school, 25-17, 26-28, 25-27. White Oak beat Elysian Fields, 25-17, 25-11, for its first win of the season.

White Oak was to play three games on Friday: an 8 a.m. start against Garrison, a 10 a.m. start against Quitman, and a 1 p.m. start against North Hopkins.

West Rusk, Henderson: Henderson’s Lady Lions went on the road to New London for their season opener Tuesday, and coach Melissa Abrams’ Lady Raiders pulled it off, dealing Henderson a 25-20, 17-25, 16-25, 21-25 defeat.

We don’t have numbers for Henderson from this matchup, unfortunately, but Irelind Hunt went nuts for the Lady Raiders, with 18 kills. Hannah Haffner had 12 kills for West Rusk, and Kamyah Lacy had 11. Kimora Pryor and Mackenzie Ressler each had four – Pryor had 41 assists. Kara King had 19 digs for the Carolina-blue team.

Hunt had 10 digs; Haffner had four; Lacy, five blocks; Pryor, two; Ressler, 29 digs; and Paisley Smith, 27.

Ressler had four aces, and Haffner, one.

Henderson is also competing in that Central Heights tournament,

Coach Keasa Bonds’ Lady Lions will visit Marshall Tuesday for a dual match with Marshall and Jefferson – that’ll start at 4:30.

Henderson bounced back from losing to West Rusk with that win over White Oak mentioned earlier, in tournament play at CHHS, and then split the final two matches on Thursday, losing to Marshall, 25-16, 27-25, and then beating Elysian Fields, 25-14, 25-19.

The Lady Lions face Rusk at 5 p.m. today as the tournament continues.

West Rusk is in a tournament at Leon High this weekend, and then visits Rusk on Tuesday, starting with the JV-B team at 4:30.

Beckville, Sabine: Two more teams from the ETBlitz.com coverage area met at Sabine High in Liberty City, and Casey Falgout won her debut in her second tenure as Beckville head coach – the Ladycats beat Sabine in four, 25-17, 22-25, 25-22, 25-17.

Kellen Weaver had 16 kills and four blocks for Beckville, now also competing in that tournament at Leon this weekend. Teammate Alayna Goolsby had 17 assists and three aces, and Carlie Tuttle had seven kills, 14 assists, four blocks and three aces.

Landrie Dennard had 22 digs, two kills and two blocks. Alex Samford had six kills and Adyson Davis had four.

After the Leon Tourney, Beckville will play its home opener on Tuesday against another ETB-area program, Troup, starting at 5:30.

Sabine fell to 0-3 to start the season with a pair of losses in the Central Heights Tournament on Thursday. They’ll continue tournament play this weekend, and then on Tuesday, the Lady Cardinals visit Queen City, a 4:30 p.m. freshmen start, with JV and varsity to follow.

Gilmer: Tough sledding for the Lady Buckeyes on Tuesday, as they lost both ends of matches against Whitehouse (16-25, 11-25, 20-25) and Tyler Legacy (15-25, 9-25, 14-25).

In the loss against Legacy, Macy Stocks led Gilmer with nine kills; Jayna Rucker had seven; and Brooke Collie had 11 assists. In the loss to Whitehouse, Rucker had six kills and Livi Brown had five.

Gilmer, according to its schedule, is off the remainer of the weekend, and is back in action Tuesday night at New Diana, a 6:30 p.m. varsity start.

Pine Tree, Arp: The Lady Pirates went 2-1 in Central Heights’ tournament on Thursday, beating Arp, another ETBlitz-area program, 25-14, 25-20, and Elkhart, 25-19, 25-18, with a 25-17, 25-17 loss to tournament host Central Heights sandwiched in between.

Tournament play was to resume on Friday with PT facing Timpson at 9 a.m., Nacogdoches at 11 a.m., and Robinson at 1 p.m.

The Lady Pirates visit Van on Tuesday.

As for the Arp Lady Tigers, they beat Big Sandy in their opener, lost the matchup with Pine Tree in the tournament, beat Elkhart in the tournament and then lost to CHHS.

Arp is set to play Farmersville at 2 p.m. Friday, as the tournament continues. They’ll face Elysian Fields at 5 and Diboll at 6:05, according to the tournament schedule.

In a 25-17, 25-22, 25-9 home win over Big Sandy to start the season, Landry Langley had six kills, Anna Schminkey had four, Kinley Schminkey, two, and Bree Golden and Kaitlyn Raymond one each.

Golden had three aces, and Raymond and Hannah Martindale each had two; and Raymond had six digs, and Lucy Hopson, four.

In the loss to PT, Anna Schminkey and Raymond each had four kills; Golden had two aces; and Hopson had 10 digs.

Raymond had six kills and Langley, four in a 25-22, 26-24 win over Elkhart. Langley also added nine digs and two aces.

And in the 25-14, 25-22 loss to Central Heights, Raymond had seven kills and 10 digs; Hopson had 16 digs.

Overton: The Lady Mustangs are playing in a tournament at Palestine High this weekend, and then will host Union Hill on Tuesday, beginning at 5 p.m.

Overton is red-hot to start the season, a 4-0 record with wins over San Augustine, Kennard, Kemp and Crocket.

They play three times Friday in tournament play: at 10 a.m. against Athens, at 11 a.m. against Mildred and at 1 p.m. against Scurry-Rosser.

Carthage: Carthage also is competing in the tournament at Tyler High, and then will host Hallsville on Tuesday night, beginning with JV play at 4 p.m

Tatum: Central Heights caused all sorts of havoc this week for ETBlitz-area teams, including Tatum, a volleyball power in East Texas. Central Heights beat the Lady Eagles, 25-12, 17-25, 19-25, 13-25) in Tatum, where the Lady Eagles just don’t lose often, and didn’t at all in the 2024 season.

Kamdyn Scott had 25 kills, 10 digs, and two blocks for coach Leven Barker and Tatum. Kaysen Foster had 13 kills, 16 digs, a block and an ace. Kyndal Greenwood had 11 digs, and Presley Wilcox had three, and a block.

Tatum is in a tournament at Garland Sasche this weekend, and then hosts Spring Hill on Tuesday, starting at 4:30 with JV.