CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Orange Grove knocked off Carroll in a four-set non-district volleyball matchup on Tuesday, defeating the UIL 5A Tigers 3-1 despite being a 3A program. Last fall the Lady Bulldogs made a three-round playoff run.
Carroll, hosting the match, took the opening set 25-23 in a back-and-forth battle. Orange Grove responded by dominating set 2, winning 25-14, then closed out the match with a 25-21 win in set 3 and a nail-biter 29-27 victory in set 4.
Senior Gysel Guerrero gave Carroll an early 5-3 lead in set 1 with a kill down the line off a backside set. Orange Grove sophomore Maison Migura answered later in the set, firing a crosscourt kill to give the Bulldogs a 23-22 lead. Carroll sophomore Isabella Bass responded with a key block to retake the lead and close out the set.
Orange Grove took control in set 2 behind a pair of double blocks from Braelyn Williams and Rylee Freitag, building an 11-5 lead before pulling away for the 25-14 win.
Migura, who was a standout throughout the match, reflected on what it meant to compete against a program like Carroll.
"Playing a team like this, they're scrappy. They'll get everything up and they're not going to quit, but neither are we," Migura said. "This shows that because we're a pretty good team and sometimes we need a hard team like this to show us what we can do. We can beat whichever team we want, whatever team we want, as long as we communicate, stay low, and just work together as a team, and we've been doing a much better job at that. I'm very proud of the girls."
District play is still a few weeks away, but both Coastal Bend teams are off to a strong start.
