RAIDED! Randall wins second ever volleyball state championship
When West Plains High School was formed earlier this year, Randall volleyball players Tatum Brandt and Jordyn Gove got together in the Randall library and started planning what the following season was going to look like. Brandt said the pair analyzed every detail of how things would look and how many players the Lady Raiders would have left.
"We counted about eight," she said with a laugh.
Eight total players, but Gove was the only starter from last year coming back as Brandt missed virtually the whole year with a knee injury. The Lady Raiders only wound up carrying three seniors including Brandt. They had to drop down to unfamiliar 4A in a district featuring West Plains, Pampa and Hereford. They turned to a setter in Sidney Soria who had never played varsity before.
Then they won the second volleyball state championship in school history.
That's right. The Lady Raiders swept Aubrey 25-16, 25-17, 27-25 on Saturday at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland to cap off an improbable season that likely none outside of Canyon ISD thought was possible at the start of the year. It was the second state championship of the season for Randall after taking the tennis title home last month and the first volleyball championship since 2009.
Head coach Haleigh Burns said earlier in the week that her 201st career victory was sweeter than the 200th she got on Thursday. She also said she started to realize in the summer that this team could be the one to take home the title.
Brandt and Gove said they knew the moment they sat down in that library back in January. In hindsight, they said the split was the best thing that could've happened to the Lady Raiders as it helped this year's unit draw closer together.
“At the end of the game we want to leave it all out on the court for each other," Gove said. "Not for the stats or our own individual awards, but because I want that person next to me to have that medal so bad. Just as bad as I want my own.”
Soria went from no varsity experience to recording 1,000 assists in a season. Gove went from a respected starter to State Tournament MVP. Brandt went from the trainer's table to the first-place podium. And Burns went from one of the most respected coaches in the Panhandle to a first-time state champion as a coach.
“I think I’m still just kind of excited and at a loss for words," Burns said. "If you’d have told me in February that we would be here, I wouldn’t have known…In the summer I watched how my kids played play and how they played for each other, and I knew in that moment we could get here and we could get it done."
After a pair of relatively easy sets, Aubrey fought back in the third. Randall managed to go up 23-20 before Aubrey rattled off four unanswered points to come within one of forcing set four. The Lady Raiders scored four of the next five to close things out and get the trophy.
Gove (12 kills, 15 digs), Brandt (11 digs) and Soria (37 assists) led the way.
Winning the second state title in school history was every bit as enjoyable as you'd imagine for the Lady Raiders. Brandt spoke for all of them, however, when she said it was made more special by doing it with this particular group of girls.
“I wouldn’t want to go through this with any other team," she said. "This whole experience has made my senior season the absolute best season I have ever had. I couldn’t ask for any better people backing me up…I told coach Burns my freshman year, ‘I’m going to take you guys to the state tournament and I’m going to go win it for you.’ To have this medal around my neck and prove that means the world."
The Lady Raiders had to practically start over from scratch in the offseason, they responded by going undefeated in district while sweeping all but one opponent. They suffered multiple injuries throughout the year, they answered by making it back to the state tournament for the first time in three years.
And when people thought that just making it to Garland would be enough, they went ahead and won the whole thing. It was a fitting end to a year no one expected.
Well, no one except the Lady Raiders.
"I’m just so incredibly proud of this group," Burns said. "If you guys knew the tough things we’ve been through and the adversity we’ve faced then you’d be just as happy as us. I think it’s just a true testament to these kids and everything they put into it."
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: RAIDED! Randall wins second ever volleyball state championship
