After battling for a 21-20 win in the regular season on Sept. 11, fourth-ranked Windthorst (11-1) left little to the imagination as to which team deserved to continue playing in the postseason.
Few in Archer County and the North Texas area compare to Tatum Veitenheimer. The pig-tailed blonde left Windthorst as the region’s all-time leading scorer with 3,311 career points, averaging nearly 25 points pergame to garner all-state accolades all four years of her illustrious prep career.
The Holliday (11-1) defense stymied S&S Consolidated (6-5) all night, holding the Rams to just 10 first downs and 206 yards of offense in a 44-7 area-round beat down on Thursday, Nov. 19, in Bowie.
The Holliday Lady Eagle cross country team had a goal to repeat as state champions this year. However, competition at the state level is a field of elite athletes, so duplicating last year’s success was going to take a major effort.
Bushland proved it deserved to be the top-ranked team in the state. The Lady Falcons (26-2) entered Saturday’s Region I-3A Final having not dropped a set in their previous 14 matches and only losing 10 sets all season. That trend held true in Childress as Holliday (24-5) ran into the Bushland buzzsaw in a 3-0 (25-6, 25-13, 25-16) season-ending loss.
Setter Maddie Lopez garnered District 9-2A co-MVP honors after helping Archer City to a 19-5 record, a district championship and an appearance in the regional quarterfinals. Lopez shared the award with Petrolia senior Haygen Fleming. The junior tallied 80 kills, 56 aces, 395 assists, 247 digs and seven blocks to take home the district’s top honor.
Millsap was not a typical No. 4 seed. The Bulldogs were a two-point conversion away from representing District 5-2A as the No. 2 seed. Holliday (10-1) managed to survive and advance in a 21-13 dogfight with the Bulldogs in a Region II-2A DII bi-district bout.
For just the second time in history, Archer City (6-3) and Windthorst (10-1) are set to meet in the postseason. The two Archer County rivals meet in Graham on Friday, Nov. 20, at 7 p.m. with a trip to the Region II-2A Semifinals on the line.