Six days after beating A&M Consolidated in a five-set district match, College Station High School opened the Class 5A Division I playoffs with a sweep, and the city's other volleyball program begins its run Friday night.
The Cougars defeated Kingwood Park 25-22, 25-15, 25-20 on Thursday at Bridgeland High School in Cypress, according to MaxPreps. Kingwood Park had finished second in its district at 10-2 and ends the year 20-16.
College Station (26-18) has won five straight since an Oct. 9 loss at Montgomery, a stretch that includes the 3-2 home win over Consolidated on Oct. 23. MaxPreps lists the Cougars at 8-1 at home, 6-4 on the road and 12-13 at neutral sites, where Thursday's win was played.
Consol's turn
A&M Consolidated (34-8) plays Porter at 6 p.m. Friday in the same division. The Tigers tied Lake Creek for the District 17-5A title at 12-2 and are listed first in MaxPreps' final standings. Porter (22-13) finished third in its district at 7-5 and enters on a two-match losing streak.
The winner advances to face La Porte, which outlasted Dayton in five sets Thursday, 21-25, 25-23, 25-18, 22-25, 15-11, and is 24-13.
Consolidated's district run included road sweeps at Lake Creek on Oct. 9 and Montgomery on Oct. 16. One of its two league losses came Oct. 23 at College Station. The Tigers rebounded with a 3-2 nondistrict win at Salado on Oct. 27.
A district that keeps winning
District 17-5A sent four teams into the bracket, and the three that played Thursday all won. Lake Creek (39-10) swept Splendora 25-21, 25-14, 25-9, and Montgomery (37-11) beat West Fork 26-28, 25-21, 25-16, 25-16. UIL splits each district's four qualifiers into two divisions by enrollment, and those two played in Division II.
That leaves College Station and Consolidated as the district's Division I representatives.
The two schools split their regular-season series. Consolidated won 3-0 at home on Sept. 29, and the Cougars returned the result in five sets at College Station on Oct. 23. College Station also split with Lake Creek and lost both meetings with Montgomery, finishing fourth at 10-4, the same record as the third-place Bears.
Ball awaits the Cougars
College Station's area-round opponent is Galveston Ball, which swept Goose Creek Memorial 25-13, 25-22, 25-15 at Pasadena High School on Thursday. Ball is 35-9 and finished second in its district at 13-3, and it has won four straight.
UIL's schedule calls for area matches Nov. 2-3, regional semifinals Nov. 5-7 and regional finals Nov. 9-10. The state tournament is Nov. 19-21 at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland.
