The Cross Roads Lady ’Cats are going back to Tyler.
For the second consecutive year Cross Roads punched its ticket to the Region III- semifinals, this time by beating the Yantis Lady Owls Tuesday night in four games, 25-17, 24-26, 25-18, 25-8, at the Athens High School gym,
The win improved Cross Roads’ record to 27-8 on the year and sets up a Friday afternoon showdown with No. 3 Iola at the University of Texas at Tyler. According to the UIL bracket, the game is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m.
“We are tickled to death to win,” said coach Giff Durham. “We’re looking forward to going back (to the regional semifinals). Last year it was a great accomplishment to get there. This year we want to get there and get out of there.”
Last year Cross Roads was eliminated in the regional semifinal round by Normangee.
Tuesday night the Lady ‘Cats steamrolled a shorthanded Yantis squad. Already down one player because of illness, the Lady Owls lost senior starter Jamie Gilliland when she hurt her knee in warm-ups.
Cross Roads led for most of the match, only falling behind late in Game 2 when the Lady ‘Cats became their own worst enemy.
“We have to hit the ball better,” Durham said. “We had a lot of hitting errors, a lot of unforced errors that we can’t have. I thought we settled down and hit the ball better in the third game. We just had too many unforced errors in the second game.”
While the big hitters on the front row — Kenzi Arnold, Bo and Brook Miller, Marissa Penney and Lindsey Cross — and the setting of Chasity Pryor that kept the Lady Owls on their heels, it was the defense of Katie Elledge and Casey Cerrillo on Cross Roads’ back row that provided the consistency.
“I thought (Cerillo and Elledge) had a real good game,” Durham said. “Both of them had a good game both passing and digging.
“It was a total team effort.”
The Lady ‘Cats will head into Friday afternoon’s match against Iola with experience, both against Iola and in the Patriot Gym.
Cross Roads played Iola early in the year in a pair of tight tournament games.
“It is going to be two good teams playing. Whoever executes, makes the fewest mistakes, gets a few breaks, that’s who is going to win,” Durham said.
