Lady Matadors fall to Lady Knights in thrilling five-set match

(Seguin) — The Seguin Lady Matadors battled back from two sets down fighting off seven match points, but ultimately fell in a grueling five-set match to Class 6A Cibolo Steele on Tuesday night at Goldie Harris Gym.

The Lady Knights won the first two sets and seemed ready to sweep the match with a 21-16 lead in the third set, but the Lady Mats reached back and rallied. Seguin scored five straight points, four of them off the serve of sophomore Ellie Anderson to knot the score at 21-21. The teams would battle back and forth for the next several minutes as the Lady Matadors turned away five match points from Steele to eventually win the third set, 37-35.

Seguin took the fourth set, 25-21. In the fifth and final set, both teams traded shots with Steele finally able to prevail 16-14 after converting their third match point of the set to end the match.

“I think that was definitely a step in the right direction. (We had) a lot of mental toughness checkpoints in that whole match,” Seguin head coach Ashley Farris said following the match. “I thought we did a good job. Obviously we just got to learn how to finish that fifth set.”

Senior Karina Lerma led the Lady Mats with 22 kills and 25 digs. Junior Giselle Morales had 38 assists on the night. The sophomore Anderson had 12 kills and led Seguin with six blocks.

Farris said Anderson has really improved her game since her freshman year.

“That’s been her all season, too. She’s really coming out of her shell, I would say. (It’s) been a big difference for her from last year to this year. I’m super excited to see her and her future.”

The Lady Matadors next head to the Bastrop tournament. Seguin will have three matches on Thursday to start tourney play. Play in District 27-5A starts for the Lady Mats when they host the Sam Houston Lady Hurricanes next Tuesday night at Goldie Harris.

In other action for area teams, Marion took down Bandera on the road on Tuesday while Navarro fell at Schertz Clemens. The Lady Bulldogs will head to Bay City on Thursday to play at the Tournament On the Bay while the Lady Panthers compete at the Bastrop tournament.