Nixon-Smiley drops to 1-1 in district

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NIXON — In what was described as a “winnable” game, the Nixon-Smiley Lady Mustangs dropped to 1-1 as they lost at home to the Hallettsville Lady Brahmas (1-1), (25-19, 25-22, 25-19).

“We were just kind of going through the motions,” Lady Mustangs’ head coach Tara Dunn said. “We didn’t really come out with the intensity that we normally do and it showed. This is definitely a game we should have won, but we just didn’t show up for it.”

Both teams kept it close in the first set as Nixon-Smiley led 11-10 midway through. Hallettsville would then go on a 7-0 run, giving them a lead they’d ultimately not give up the rest of the set. Down 19-14, Amanda Muñoz gave the Lady Mustangs a boost with three straight kills to cut the lead to two. After trading points, due to serve errors on Nixon-Smiley’s side, Hallettsville would end the set on a 4-0 run, winning 25-19.

“That was a momentum crusher,” Dunn said of the bad serves. “We struggle with serves all year, which is what I talked about with them and they just have to step up with their serves. It’s serving, it’s a big part, you just got to get it in there.”

Nixon-Smiley showed some fight at the start of the second set, starting off with a huge 9-1 run. The Lady Mustangs scored off aces, kills and even a block. Dunn was impressed with their fight.

“We came out hustling at the beginning,” she noted.

Unfortunately, Hallettsville would turn it around and roll a 10-4 run, again taking advantage of serve issues by Nixon-Smiley before Dunn called a timeout. Hallettsville eventually tied the game up at 18 apiece before finally taking the 19-18 lead.

“We kind of just let up the hustle,” Dunn noticed. “That’s one of our strengths, our ability to just keep getting balls and frustrating the other team and we let up on that and that’s how [Hallettsville] got back into the game.”

Hallettsville would win the set 25-20.

The third set saw more key blocks from Nixon-Smiley but they were unable to take advantage as Hallettsville finished the game with a 25-19 third-set win.

“[We] just [need] a constant focus,” Dunn said of the team, “focus on getting our serves in the court and keeping our energy up so that we can keep the intensity up on defense.”

Despite the loss, Dunn was impressed with the team’s defense, specifically on their blocks up at the net.

“I was happy with our blocking,” she said. “Our blocking was pretty good tonight. We had some moments of greatness on a bunch of things, we just didn’t do it consistently. Just got to pick it up for next time.”

Autumn Rodriguez led the team in solo blocks with three solos and one assisted. Karley Brassell had one solo block and three assisted. Lexi Trammell had two solo.

Meanwhile, Amanda Muñoz led the way in kills with 12. Celeste Arriaga had seven kills.

Nixon-Smiley hopes to remain in playoff contention as they travel to Luling tonight for a 4:30 p.m. game. Dunn believes the team’s attitudes and commitment has come a long way since their opener earlier in the year.

“That was my biggest thing coming in,” she said. “I wanted us to talk constantly and always have a good attitude and I think the team is treating each other very well. They’ve had issues in the past with chemistry and that’s going very well this year.”

The Lady Mustangs will then travel to Stockdale on Tuesday night.

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