The Galveston County Daily News

FRIENDSWOOD — Jasmine Casey didn’t expect this.

The Friendswood junior did not change her routine. She played on the same club team and performed the same offseason workouts.

Yet she looks like a completely different player in 2009.

Casey has exploded on the volleyball scene this season. After a solid sophomore campaign, Casey has become one of the premier players in Region III-4A to help the Lady Mustangs to a district championship and a No. 4 state ranking.

She leads Friendswood in kills at 449, 192 more than the next closest player on the team. Casey’s 464 digs also rank first among the Lady Mustangs, and she spends nearly half of her time on the front row attacking.

“I don’t know how it happened,” Casey said. “I didn’t do anything differently. All my physical activities over the summer were the same.”

But her mental approach changed with some added responsibility.

Friendswood coach Jerry Linch told Casey during the summer that she would be one of three team captains. Ever since that moment, Casey has elevated her game.

Casey received two all-tournament selections during the Lady Mustangs’ first month of play, including the prestigious Justin Northwest ISD Classic. She then received MVP of the Dickinson tournament.

It hasn’t stopped during district, either. Casey helped lead Friendswood to an undefeated district run, reclaiming the 24-4A title after sharing it last year with Santa Fe. The Lady Mustangs dropped just two games in their 14 district matches.

“She’s come a long way,” Linch said. “We knew she had it in her, and with the responsibility, she’s just taken her game to another level.”

All this has come with Friendswood’s youngest team in recent memory. Before the season, Linch called the Lady Mustangs inexperienced but talented. He openly said he did not know what to expect.

But Casey, along with fellow captains Sarrah Woolley and Siobhan O’Neill had expectations. They remembered the euphoria of 2007 when Friendswood went to state. They also recalled the bitter taste of 2008 — Magnolia shocked the Lady Mustangs in the regional semifinals.

The three captains refused to let that happen again, and vowed, no matter how young their teammates, to not get caught off guard again.

“Not taking anything away from Magnolia, but we could have won that game,” Casey said. “We had kind of breezed through the playoffs and thought things would be easy. We — I — wasn’t going to do that again.”

Casey has followed through on her promise. She’s stepped up her leadership role; she’s intense and demands a lot from her teammates.

Little did she know that small change would make her a better player.

“I never would have thought of it that way, because that’s not why I’m a captain,” Casey said. “But I guess when I started asking other players to give more, I had to hold myself to an even higher standard.”