Volleyball: Playoff matches pit familiar foes

Rematches galore are on the slate tonight throughout the Permian Basin as the Region I high school volleyball playoffs continue.

In Class 3A, Monahans (32-10) faces Lubbock Cooper (29-6) at 7:30 p.m. at Greenwood in a regional quarterfinal match. A victory would give the Lady Loboes a trip to the Region I-3A Tournament in Lubbock for the sixth consecutive year.

Wink (21-15) plays Sterling City (19-3) at 7:30 p.m. at Midland Christian in a Region I-1A quarterfinal match. If the Lady Cats win, they would head to Lubbock for the seventh consecutive season.

Andrews (24-11) faces Lamesa (24-11) at 7:30 p.m. in Seminole in a Region I-3A quarterfinal.

The stakes are high in all three matches with the playoff circumstances, but all of them also have a little added spice.

>> Andrews and Lamesa are District 3-3A rivals and will be playing for the fourth time this season, including the first round of a district championship playoff that the Lady Mustangs won in four games.

During the 3-3A season, Lamesa won at home in a three-game sweep and Andrews won in five games on its home floor. The teams then tied with Sweetwater for the league crown, and Andrews emerged on top of the three-team playoff for the No. 1 seed into the postseason.

The Lady Mustangs beat Pecos in a five-game match Saturday in the area round behind 18 kills from Jeleah Ratliff and 46 assists from Sophie Rondan.

>> Monahans earned a three-game sweep of District 4-3A champion Cooper in the same round of the playoffs last year and probably knew this matchup would occur even before the season began.

Ironically, Monahans made several trips to the Lubbock area this season for nondistrict matches but never played Cooper.

Monahans had no trouble sweeping Sweetwater on Saturday.

>> Wink will be shooting for a victory against District 4 champion Sterling City for the second straight year in the same round of the playoffs.

Just reaching this round again wasn’t easy for Wink, which beat another league winner — Marfa out of District 2 — in a five-game match last week in the area round.

Trinity Walker had 27 kills, Lyndi Shackelford had 17 kills and 24 assists, and Jasmine Solis had 44 digs during the victory against Marfa.