Volleyball teams in District 2-6A can never overlook their opponent on the other side of the net.
No matter what happens early in a match, teams have to be 100 percent focused throughout the contest.
Permian was reminded of that the hard way during its second set against Wolfforth Frenship in a district contest Tuesday at the Permian Fieldhouse.
The Lady Panthers earned a close first-set victory and then relaxed, which the visiting Lady Tigers immediately took advantage.
The Lady Tigers closed out the set on a 10-0 run to even the match.
That was just the wakeup call Permian needed.
Jade Workman had a team-high 12 kills to lead the Lady Panthers to a 25-23, 11-25, 25-18, 25-23 victory.
“Frenship stepped up a little bit in that second set,” Lady Panthers head coach Gillian Herrera said. “They blocked a lot of the balls, and we were trying to cover, but those balls were hitting the ground.”
Cianna Harris and Anahi Quiroz each added 11 kills to the victory, with setting Layny Brown finishing with 22 assists.
Permian improved to 20-8 overall, 3-1 in district.
Frenship dropped to 11-20, 2-2.
“Honestly, in that second set, I just think we sat back on our heels, we got lackadaisical, and we just thought they were going to lay down and hand it to us,” Harris said.
The Panthers responded with a dominant third set, as the home team never trailed to regain the lead.
“We were talking a lot and we just communicated more on how we wanted to set each play up,” outside hitter Sarahi Orona said of the third set. “The passes were pretty good. Everything was just good.”
Harris agreed.
“I think we did a great job coming back,” Harris said. “We realized that we needed to pick up the pace; we needed to get a handle on this.
“We needed to take this third set, which helped us with our momentum into the fourth set.”
The fourth set was a back-and-forth affair.
There were only three lead changes and four ties, but the largest lead by either team was a small four-point cushion by the Lady Panthers (17-13).
The Lady Tigers responded with five of the next six points to tie the set before moving out to a 23-21 lead, looking to force a fifth set.
Frenship then committed three consecutive errors to turn what was set to be a fifth and deciding set into a second straight home victory.
“That’s just something that you work on in practice, scenarios, and you always want to be that underdog,” Herrera said.
“You just got to put the ball in play and play aggressively no matter what, and I think we did that.”
Orona believed everything clicked in that fourth set.
“It was awesome,” Orona said. “Everything was working.
“It all started with our passes. Our passes were on point.”
Permian will travel to face Odessa High (13-12, 0-4) at 5 p.m. Friday at the Odessa High Fieldhouse.
“We are going to celebrate tonight, but go watch film tomorrow and prep for Odessa High,” Herrera said. “It’s a crosstown rivalry.
“It’s always going to be an intense and good game.”
>> Follow Sameer Malla on Twitter at @OA_SameerMalla
