The Galveston County Daily News

MISSOURI CITY — After getting upset in the first round of last year’s playoffs, the Santa Fe Lady Indians weren’t in a mood for a repeat performance Tuesday at Fort Bend ISD’s Hopson Field House.

Instead, the Lady Indians came out focused on domination.

Santa Fe played one of its best matches of the season in a three-game sweep over Lamar Consolidated in the Region III-4A bidistrict match, 25-11, 25-21, 25-21.

“After what happened last year, I think a lot of us were hungry for vengeance,” junior Katie Marabella said. “I don’t know about the other girls, but (last year’s playoff loss) was on my mind today. I knew we were too good to let that happen again, so we wanted to come out with a quick start and get the job done.”

Santa Fe (36-5) certainly did that. With Regina Trapp and Taelor Higgins controlling the net and Marabella unleashing strikes from the outside, the Lady Indians steamrolled Lamar in the first game. At one point, they took 16 of 18 points.

“Our two middles (Trapp and Higgins) were dominating the net,” Santa Fe coach Anna Marie Milligan said. “We were doing really well in the serving game, too. Really everyone was in control in all areas. I feel like it was a dominating win.”

Lamar (18-18) put up more of a fight in Game 2, leading 15-12 at one point. However, Trapp and Marabella again turned up the heat as Santa Fe scored 13 of the last 19 points.

“We wanted to dominate tonight,” Trapp said. “It’s my senior year, so I wanted to put it all on the line. We all came to play in this game.”

Game 3 was much of the same, with Santa Fe never trailing by more than two points. It took control of the match midway through and easily completed the sweep.

Trapp led the way with 14 kills and five blocks, while Marabella had 11 kills, 10 digs and four aces.

Also contributing to the dominant performance were Kelli Handley (19 assists), Lindsey Martindale (15 assists) and Higgins (nine kills).

Santa Fe will play Houston Waltrip (14-5) in the area round at 7 p.m. Thursday at Alvin High School. With the way the Lady Indians looked Tuesday night, they are thinking about a deep run in this year’s postseason.

“We’re very pleased with the way we are playing right now,” Marabella said. “I think we are peaking at the right time.”