Volleyball: Alpine holds serve to knock off Shallowater

Good volleyball starts at the service line.

Before a team can get to bump, set, spike, the ball has to get safely into play.

And Alpine knows that a strong serve can mess with an opponent’s rhythm. Playing in a Class 2A quarterfinal Tuesday night, the Lady Bucks swept Shallowater 25-18, 25-16, 26-24 at the Permian Fieldhouse to advance to the Region I-2A tournament this weekend at Abilene Christian.

Alpine (33-7) faces Peaster at 6 p.m. Friday.

“We did a pretty good job of sending a tough serve over the net tonight,” Alpine head coach Troy Canaba said. “It took them out of system.”

Led by Alyssa Fields, who had a match-high five aces, Alpine racked up eight aces on the night and only committed two errors at the service line.

Shallowater (22-18) simply couldn’t come close to matching that efficiency.

Both of the Fillies’ first two servers to open the match committed service errors on their first swing to give Alpine a 5-2 lead right away.

“It felt like we played tight,” Fillies coach Amy Mangum said. “We haven’t done that in a while, but we didn’t come out with that confidence tonight.”

Capitalizing on Shallowater’s inability to consistently put serves in play — the Fillies committed 10 service errors — Alpine rolled through the first set 25-18.

At one point, Christina Graham drilled three consecutive aces through the Shallowater defense.

And Graham wasn’t even the most dangerous Alpine server taking swings. Mixing a jump-float with a hard, flat serve to the middle, Fields — a Class 2A state qualifier in cross country — made it almost impossible for Fillies setter Taylor Wilson to take the first pass in system.

Fields’ ability to hit the ball crosscourt didn’t do Shallowater any favors, either.

“Any time it’s coming crosscourt, it’s a lot harder to get than if it’s coming straight at you,” Fields said. “Sometimes my serve floats, too, and I think that throws people off.”

Coupling the Lady Bucks dominant serve with the all-around abilities of middle blocker/setter Megan Oliphant, who had 15 kills and 16 assists, Alpine put the Fillies in a hole 25-16 to end the second set.

That’s when Shallowater got defender Shayna Conner back. Early in the first set, Oliphant took a powerful swing that Conner couldn’t handle.

That ball gave Conner a bloody nose and forced her to leave the game.

But she came back to make eight digs in the final game and spark Shallowater.

“She’s really a good defender,” Canaba said. “And once she came in the third game, it really pushed them over the edge.”

Shallowater tested Alpine, forcing the Lady Bucks to come back and tie the game four times before a kill by Oliphant finally ended the match.