Cinco Ranch wanted to start the playoffs on the right note.

The Cougars didn’t want any let up in the bi-district down, didn’t want to play down to their opponent and wanted to make sure they played their best game as the stakes started to rise with the beginning of the Class 6A-Division I playoffs.

The Cougars did more than that, they came out and had one of their best matches of the season, sweeping past Alief Taylor in three sets (25-8, 25-8, 25-0) where they didn’t allow a singular point in the third set to advance to the area round.

“The energy was just great tonight from everyone and that’s exactly what we needed to start the playoffs,” said senior outside hitter Gabi Martinez. “Everyone came out and put together their best game and that’s something we can build off of. It really just pumped us up and now we are even more ready for the next round.”

Cinco allowed eight points each of the first two sets but was perfect in the final set. Kassie O’Brien took the ball to start the set and never stopped serving. Cinco won 25 straight points to clinch the win and were dominant throughout the set, from aces to slams to everything in between.

“We got halfway through the set and I realized we could do it, but I just tried to not feel that pressure, breathe and stay with what I know to do which is hit my serve strong, hit my spot and let my team work after that. It was awesome that we were able to do that.”

While third set was all serving and offense, a big part of the first two sets was the Cougars serve receive. The Cougars never let Alief Taylor get anything going offensively or string together any runs and that was a huge credit to how the team played when they had to defend the serve.

“It’s been a lot of work for our serve-receive to get where it is right now,” said senior outside hitter Gabi Martinez. “We stayed after practice every single day for a long time so we could get better in that area specifically. It’s really helping us and it shows out there on the court.”

The Cougars came into the year with lots of younger players that needed to grow into their roles and they have started to blossom as the season have progressed. Those younger players have helped Cinco go on a 17 match win streak and head into the playoffs as one of the hottest teams in the state.

“The returning seniors have done a great job with mentoring the younger ones,” said Cinco Ranch head coach Danielle Wells. “Those seniors made the younger players rise to the occasion and play at a higher level all of the time. The leadership has been great, they’ve demanded and expected it and it’s helped the underclassman grow a lot.”

The Cougars will play the winner of Lamar and Cy-Fair in the area round. Cinco knows that the most important thing is they keep their same goals, striving to play their best game, focusing on themselves and making sure they give themselves the best chance at another win.

“The girls know and we’ve talked about how it doesn’t matter who is on the other side of the net. We have to trust our game plan, trust each other and go out there and play our style of volleyball.”