Coaches Corner with Volleyball’s Kim Paisley

The ReSporter: If you could play Kerrville Tivy again with the team you have right now, what would your result be? (Hawks were beaten by Tivy in their very first tournament in the championship game)

Coach Kim Paisley giving instructions on a serve with Mariah Ellis

Coach Paisley: “We definitely would play better defense at the net and our offense would execute more efficiently.”

The ReSporter: What has happened this year that has allowed this team to make such a turn around from last season?

Coach Paisley: “As soon as season ended last year, this group of girls set their own personal goals, (I had no prompting in this for them), to work hard in offseason, attend amazing meaningful camps, play club ball all spring, join summer league, and attend open gym/private lessons all summer!”

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The Undefeated CLJV take instructions after sweeping Navarro on Tuesday night.

Canyon Lake’s JV and Freshman teams both swept the Navarro Panthers on Tuesday night as both teams find themselves undefeated in District 26-4A play.

“Nothing was easy in this game,” Head JV Coach Megan Helmey started. “Navarro has a scrappy team….after our tournament in the Hays Tournament we have jelled as a team.”

In the JV game, the Hawks, finally got the upper hand in their first game when they scored the last seven points to win, 25-20.

The game started with a CL run and, 4-0 lead only to see this Panther team storm back and take control of the middle part of this contest.

Canyon Lake JV found themselves down as many as four points, 17-13 before their onslaught would be unleashed.

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Hayley Melone is Digging it, after a 3-0 sweep over Navarro.

Navarro was swept in a key matchup for District 26-4A top tier teams as Canyon Lake won, 25-21, 25-21, 25-14, on Tuesday at the Hawk gym.

The Hawks have an 8 game winning streak now, which will be a new standard for other CL teams to shoot for, but that winning streak might not be done quite yet.

Canyon Lake last loss was at Blanco and since that time, your Hawks have been unbeatable.

“After last season, everyone was gung-ho about making a change,” Head Coach Kim Paisley said intently. “I had never seen a team from off season to game time go to all the multiple camps and just have an attitude about winning.”

CL is only two games away from matching that 2009 team that finished their season with 25 wins.

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With two wins this week in district play, Canyon Lake would be tied for first place.

 District 26-4A Volleyball Standings
 Team         W    L    Pct       District Play     W    L   Pct    GB
 Wimberley   26    8   .765       CL Hawks          4    0  1.000   --
 CL Hawks    24    8   .750       Wimberley         4    0  1.000   --
 Cuero       19    7   .731       Navarro           3    2   .600    2 
 Navarro     23   11   .676       Yoakum            2    2   .500    1 1/2
 Yoakum      16   12   .571       La Vernia         2    3   .400    2 1/2
 La Vernia    9   23   .281       Cuero             0    4   .000    4
 Gonzales     1   14   .067       Gonzales          0    4   .000    4

 This Week's Games:
 Sept. 22    Wimberley   Beat  Poth         3-0   

 Sept. 23    CL Hawks    Beat  Navarro      3-0
             Yoakum      Beat  Gonzales     3-0
             La Vernia   Beat  Cuero        3-1

 Sept. 26    Navarro     Beat  Yoakum       3-1
             Wimberley   Beat  La Vernia    3-0

 Sept. 27    CL Hawks    Beat  Cuero        3-0 

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Canyon Lake Volleyball improved to 22-8 and 2-0 in District 26-4A when they whitewashed Gonzales on Friday night.

Regan Mickey and Addison Farley all smiles after a win in the Tex-Fest Tournament last month in Wimberley

The Hawks are presently on an eight game winning streak with their last loss coming to Blanco three weeks ago.
CL has never reached this milestone in their short history. Being 14 games over .500 is four games better than the team that went 25-15 back during the 2009 season.

Even more significant is the overall record as Volleyball is now the only sport to go over .500 for all games played. After 225 games, the Hawks now have a 113-112 record and exceeds any other CL sport.

All the players got into action in this match as Gonzales is struggling as they have just one victory so far this season. It doesn’t help that this district is loaded with several good teams and an Apache win seems out of the question as they will be trying to regroup as this season matures.

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Canyon Lake Freshman Volleyball team won their first District 26-4A game when they came back from a one game deficit to beat the Yoakum Bulldogs, 24-26, 25-

CL Hawk Freshman Volleyball talk with Coach Ridgeway after Yoakum win

21, 25-19.

“I am proud of their fight and the comeback,” Head Freshman Coach Tosha Ridgeway said in response to this win.

The Hawks seemed to have everything under control in that first contest, when Yoakum took the lead on an eight service point rally.

CL responded with a four point run of their own but in the end the Bulldogs snatched that first victory and put the Hawks in a hole.

It was in that second game when CL found themselves down 8-10, and Coach Ridgeway substituted Chloe McCuthen in to serve.

The rest would be history as McCuthen would help rally the Hawks with a four point service and help give enough of an edge to pull out a huge game tying victory.

“I usually come in for the second game,” McCuthen said astutely. “I usually don’t serve that many times in a row either but it felt good to serve consistently.”

McCuthen might be a very focused young lady as she did not realize that after her last serve, Canyon Lake, had taken the lead.

“I thought we were still losing,” Mathematician McCuthen said. “I told myself that I was not going to look at the scoreboard until I lost the score….and I was surprised!”

McCuthen would carry on, with her second game heroics, when the third game was still to close to call. Another ace would increase that score for a 16-11 lead and the Hawks would finish off Yoakum, 25-19 in that thriller match.

From Left to Right: Alysha Perez, Hanna White and Chloe McCuthen.

Alysha Perez seemed to get more energy as the game progressed as her kills seemed to be a lot more lethal as each point was scored.

“I was just trying to help the team out,” Perez said. “I was thinking to have faith in ourselves and just get our passes down so our sets will help us get to the ball….I think if we can keep playing hard and believe in ourselves then we can have a good year.”

That was certainly the case on this night when climbing back from that opening game loss turned out to be a game of beauty.

Another good server was Hanna White as her jump serve was a thing of beauty that seemed to be just skimming the net and putting her opponent on the ropes.

“I started with my jump serve when I turned 12, after I had mastered my other serve,” White said. “This was a good game because we got to pick our heads up and push through that first game.”

This Yoakum team also had some runs and in that second game White knew that Canyon Lake could turn the tide.

“I knew we could get one pass up and then we could stop their run,” White said as her team not only stopped their run but also had a chance to walk these Bulldogs back to their bus with a loss.

A good first district win and now CL can work on getting another win this Friday when they travel to Gonzales.

Go Freshman Hawks!!!

Canyon Lake working on some dance moves in win over Yoakum Bulldogs

CL Hawks win first District 26-4A contest against Yoakum Bulldogs in a much closer than you think 3-0 victory, 27-25, 25-15, 25-22 on Tuesday night.

Canyon Lake stopped their eight game district losing streak in the process and now have evened their all time record at 112 all.

Another rung on CL’s ladder would be a 21-8 overall record and climbing up to 13 games over .500 for this season.

The first game was a see/saw affair as CL enjoyed a 16-11 advantage and then the Bulldogs got a hold of the Hawks like his owner just gave the Bulldog a bone.

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Canyon Lake Volleyball starts District 26-4A this week.

 District 26-4A Volleyball Standings
 Team             W   L    Pct.        District Play      W   L    Pct.   GB
 Cuero           19   5   .792         Wimberley          3   0   1.000   --
 Wimberley       24   8   .750         CL Hawks           2   0   1.000  1/2
 CL Hawks        22   8   .733         Navarro            2   1    .667   1
 Navarro         22  10   .688         Yoakum             1   1    .500   1 1/2
 Yoakum          15  10   .600         La Vernia          1   2    .333   2
 La Vernia        8  22   .267         Cuero              0   2    .000   2 1/2 
 Gonzales         1  13   .071         Gonzales           0   3    .000   3

 This Week's Games:
 Sept. 16         CL Hawks    beat Yoakum    3-0
                  La Vernia   beat Gonzales  3-0
                  Wimberley   beat Navarro   3-1
                  Cuero       beat Wharton   3-0

 Sept. 19         CL Hawks    beat Gonzales  3-0
                  Navarro     beat La Vernia 3-0
                  Wimberley   beat Cuero     3-0
                  Yoakum     Bye

Silver Bracket Champions from left to right. Dana Buhr, Zoe Edwards, Landry Hollums, Kaylie Duke, Samantha York, Kat Weber, Felicity Niestemski, Daniella Bustamante, Faith Hasness, Kaitlyn White, Abby Freund, and Sierra Ramsey

Canyon Lake’s JV Volleyball team came home from Wimberley holding a 1st Place Silver Bracket trophy.

Another Hawk team that is starting to jell as this year’s schedule continues.

The Hawk JV had some new faces starting this year which made this season a little longer to get each player on the same page with their communication.

One game in particular had been on this team’s mind when CLJV was beaten in Lockhart three weeks ago. In that game, the Hawks, had an eight point lead in that third match and a chance for their first win.

That is when all those communication gremlins showed up on the court that night and Lockhart found their groove for a comeback win.

“I think this tournament really helped us to gel as a team,” Head JV Coach Megan Helmey said. “I can see the girls working together and trusting each other more.”

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Hawks putting themselves in a good position to start district next week.

The ReSporter has mid season numbers for the Volleyball team and this is also a good time to go over what might transpire this year in District 26-4A.

Looking at the standings you will find five teams with a legitimate chance of snagging one of the four playoff spots.

Givens? Gonzales will not win a game this year in district action and La Vernia has a chance to surprise simply because they have proven themselves in past years.

Yes, they lost several players from last year’s team and the question would be can they compete with all five teams.

There have already been two games played and Cuero had the best non-district record but being beaten by Navarro 3-0 does not give you a good idea that any of those wins were to stalwart teams.

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