The Kennedale High School Lady Kat Volleyball team (6-18) has been banged up and bounced around during the early going of the 2017 season but they are showing a lot of grit. {{more: Find out more …}}
Kennedale traditionally has played up in pre-district games, entering tournaments and playing teams that compete at the 5A and 6A level. For a young team, this is learning on the fly and it hasn?t been easy..
The Lady Kats lost six all-district players from the 2016 season who dominated playing time. Filling those shoes will take time. But, this is a talented group of players, according to those who have watched them in action and they have had some bright spots this season. In mid August the Kats captured the Silver Division Championship in the ASC/Nike Denton Ryan Tournament while going on a 5 game win streak.2017 roster …
On the current roster, there is just one senior listed, Noah Dixon, but that is followed by five juniors; Paxtynn Booher, Mi Nguyen, Grace Guadagnolo, Kyndall Daniels and Courtney Reed. There are two sophomores, Lilly Rychlik and Jordan Blackmon, and three freshmen, Bryley Steinhibler, Angel Majou and Katie Spell.
Of that list, there are three veteran varsity players (Dixon, Guadagnolo, and Rychlik) all with serious playing time and all with all-district honors attached.over half of games have been against 5A or 6A teams …
The Lady Kats? wins have come against 3A Sunnyvale, 4A Iowa Park, 4A Anna, 5A South Hills, 5A Mansfield Timberview and 5A Poteet. 4A teams that they have dropped games were against Midlothian Heritage (ranked #3 in 4A, Lorena, Melissa, Glen Rose (ranked # 1 in 4A) and Aubrey.
Kennedale has two games left before starting district play next week. They hit the road tonight, Grandview with a start time of 6:15 for varsity and then again on Friday, they be on the road to Decatur with a game time of 5 p.m. Grandview is 3A but has a 13-5 record and will challenge the Kats. Decatur is always strong especially in the Eagle?s Nest. 2017 KHS Volleyball Schedule“they are learning …”
Head Coach Mary Malone likes her team. ?We are very young and we are going through a lot of growing pains, but they are eager and they are learning.?
Malone went on to say, ?I like tough schedules. They help us get ready. We are not necessarily getting ready for district. We are getting ready for post [season] play. It?s important for us to get all those hard knocks in now.
Commenting on the upcoming district play, Coach Malone said without hesitation that the strongest team in District 7/4A should be Springtown. Springtown was ranked #10 in last week’s poll by the Texas Girls Coaches Association (TGCA).
Stat Leaders ?
KILLS: Freshman Katie Spell and Junior Grace Guadagnolo are tied at 96 each. They are followed by senior Noah Dixon with 74.
ACES: Lilly Rychlik (So) leads the team in with 21 on 199 serves followed closely by Guadagnolo (So) with 20 on 149, Spell (Fr) with 18 on 120 and Dixon (Sr) with 14 on 137.
BLOCKS: Team leader in total blocks is Bryley Steinhilber (Fr) with 24 followed by Courtney Reed (Jr) at 22, Kyndall Daniels (Jr) 20 and Dixon (Sr) 20.
DIGS: Gradagnolo (Jr) has recorded 195 digs followed by Mi Nguyen (Jr) with 148 and Dixon (Sr) with 129.
ASSIST: Rychik has recorded 313 assist and 1309 ball handling attempts.
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