By Kyle Roberts
With the regular season soon drawing to a close, Ruston High (18-12) head coach Mandy Cauley gets how important it is to finish in the top 16 of the power ratings for playoff seeding.
Considering that her team has not lost one set in the Ruston High School Main Gym, it’s important to pick up as many wins as possible.
Even more impressive is heading to South Louisiana and picking up three straight wins — and helping boost Ruston back to the No. 15 spot in the power rankings.
“It was great to secure some wins over the weekend,” Cauley said. “The girls’ confidence grew with each match that we played. We are hoping to finish out the next few weeks on a strong note and hopefully land in a good spot in the power ratings.”
Ruston went 3-2 over the weekend, beginning with losses to at St. Louis Catholic (22-25, 20-25, 25-17, 22-25) on Friday after picking up a third-set win and then at host Sam Houston (12-25, 17-25) in a Saturday tournament. Ruston then rattled off three straight with wins over LaGrange (25-13, 25-20), Iowa (25-19, 25-20) and Leesville (25-14, 25-10) for the remainder of the tourney.
Sophomore Ava Crowe led the team with 25 total kills over the four-match stretch at Sam Houston.
Cauley said that one of the highlights from the weekend for her was the continued improvement of sophomore Jane Ramsey, which notched 12 kills total at the Sam Houston weekend tournament.
“I’ve seen tremendous growth and buy-in from Jane,” Cauley said. “She is more vocal on the court and has been consistently more aggressive at the net. It will be fun to see how far she climbs.”
Ruston will host both Downsville Charter and Neville Thursday, Oct. 17 at home. The regular season will end on Tuesday, Oct. 29.
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