AUSTIN (KXAN) — Liberty Hill will play for a volleyball state championship on Saturday.
Liberty Hill (46-8) dropped defending state champ Colleyville Heritage 3-1 in the Class 5A semifinals Friday at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland. Set scores were 25-20, 23-25, 25-23, 25-21.
Liberty Hill will play Lucas Lovejoy for the 5A title at 3 p.m. Saturday. Lovejoy beat Lamar Fulshear 3-0 in the other 5A semifinal.
Annie Witt led Liberty Hill with 12 kills and 17 digs while Kealy Dirner and Gigi Mason each notched 10 kills. Ana Kostroun had five kills with a .364 hitting percentage and 11 blocks.
Neither team hit that well, Liberty Hill ended the match with a .158 hitting percentage and Heritage hit .101, and Heritage had six service errors to Liberty Hill's one.
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Liberty Hill went on a 10-0 run in the first set to take a 16-9 lead, but Heritage roared back to cut Liberty Hill's lead to 22-19 before Liberty Hill closed it out. Heritage led the second set 24-21 and ended it after the Panthers made things interesting with two points late.
In the third set, Liberty Hill clawed its way back after being down 13-8 early on. The teams traded scores until Heritage tied the set at 23-23, then kills by Evie Bruce and Kealy Dirner finished it off to give Liberty Hill a 2-1 match lead.
Liberty Hill commanded the fourth set and led 20-13 before having to fend off a Heritage mini-rally when they cut the deficit to 24-21. Taylor Gaines connected on the match-ending kill for Liberty Hill to send them to the state title match.
