With the boys’ basketball team as the exception, Ingram High School has endured numerous losses this decade in sports, but those defeats are not holding back the volleyball team, which is tall and talented--certainly never noticed such height on the girls’ basketball squads the past ten years.

With the prologue out of the way, the Llano volleyball Ladies deserve an extra knuckle touch, or whatever that form of congratulations is called, for their impressive 3-1 victory at Ingram, Sept. 23.

“The win makes me proud,” head coach Shawn Sweeten said, “because I don’t think we played our best--that says a lot about the drive our girls have.”

Ingram was in the driver’s seat for most of the first game. Julie Taylor, a lean and mean dilemma at net, led the Warriors to an 18-10 advantage. Llano proceeded to score the next nine points. Libby Moore’s serves were a huge reason for the rally, but Taylor took command to put Ingram back up, 23-20.

“We’re definitely a comeback team,” Tejana Lanford said. “We’ve done it before, because we have a lot of heart.”

Cross my heart, they did it again. Allie Rostron got the Jackets’ fourth point in a row with a neat tap to the floor, and then won this first set, 25-23, with one of her 27 kills in the four games. “Great player,” was Sweeten’s lengthy discussion of Allie.

The second contest featured another sensational rally by Llano. Kelley Bradley was serving with her friends down, 24-20; she appeared to be about as nervous as she’d be if she had to re-take a fifth grade spelling test. Moore helped out with a kill (oh, she’s fierce at times!) and a finesse shot to the floor, and the scoreboard read, 25-25. Time to fade to (Red and) black--Warriors win, 27-25.

“After we lost the second game,” Katie Yeager advised, “I saw nothing but down faces, so I went over and started singing a song and making fun of ‘em--we were down for a split second, then back up.”

The instant pep rally worked--for a while. A nice Jazmin Jensen tap across the net made it 15-8, Llano, but Julie Taylor’s tornadoes to the hardwood prompted a 6-0 run. Jensen answered with a critical kill. The Jackets would go in front, 20-19, before Rostron authored a pair of magnificent pushes to the baseline--something between a tap and a kill--and the lead was three. Jensen, on a career night, fisted home a winner, and Allie showed a lot more care for the ball but got the same result. Llano captured this pivotal game three, 25-20.

“I was yelling and screaming,” Rostron yelled and screamed at a reporter. “I was so excited.” What about when a big lead is losing its voice? “We get angry and say to ourselves, ‘no, this will stop; we’re going to get this right.’”

The Warriors did not go quietly in game four. Despite superb efforts by Moore, Jensen, Rostron, Lanford, and Yeager, who had a monster 41 assists for the evening, the home team led, 20-19, before a delicate dose by Moore made all realize--the combatants were fit to be tied.

“I know the girls get tired of hearing this,” Sweeten commented, “but this is a game of momentum; that’s ALL it is, and there are times we have got to put the hammer down!”

Kirstie Roark, the steady and reliable sophomore, who's as tough as a hammer, collected a point for a 22-22 tie. Allie then put the nails into the--oh, please don’t use that line--then put her (finger) nails into three of the last four points for a 25-23 decision. Yeager had softly delivered her final assist, and the clincher was a tap. “Sometimes you have to be more strategic,” Rostron noted. “Not every hit is a kill.”

Llano is now 15-11 with four straight wins, and it is 2-2 in district. “We’re getting the hang of it now,” Lanford declared. “We enjoy winning, and we want to keep fighting because we like the feeling.”