GARLAND - Before the biggest match of the season, the Dripping Springs volleyball team didn't just visualize beating a Lovejoy team that had won all 13 matches that it had ever played at the state tournament.
Dripping Springs players also visualized how they would celebrate winning the Class 5A state championship Saturday.
"We had kind of been talking about, 'OK, we're not going to do this in the dogpile, we are going to do this in the dogpile,' trying to figure out a good technique," Dripping Springs star Morgyn Greer said. "I think it turned out pretty well."
With the 6-3 Greer hammering home a match-high 27 kills in perhaps the most dominant individual performance of the state tournament, Dripping Springs beat defending 5A state champion Lovejoy 19-25, 25-20, 25-23, 20-15, 15-12 in a dramatic state final. A boisterous crowd of 3,423 at the Curtis Culwell Center saw Dripping Springs (51-3) win its first volleyball state title since 1994, when it was a 3A school.
When sophomore Graceyn Tippens ended the two-hour marathon with the last of her 13 kills, the Tigers rushed the court and celebrated with the dogpile they had talked about before the match. Facing Lovejoy, a juggernaut that has been to the state tournament in seven of the nine years that it has played varsity volleyball, Dripping Springs coach Michael Kane didn't mind his players planning their celebration routine before they actually won.
"Before every match, we have a visualization moment," Kane said. "It's important for the kids, to be successful at the level they're at, to see yourself being successful, see yourself hoist up the trophy, see yourself dogpile. They took that to heart."
Dripping Springs avenged a three-set loss to the Leopards in last year's 5A state final and prevented Lovejoy (44-7) from winning a seventh state championship in eight years. Entering Saturday, Lovejoy had won 15 straight matches this season, dropping three out of 48 sets during the winning streak.
After Lovejoy won the opening set - the first set that Dripping Springs had lost in the playoffs -- the Leopards led 20-17 in set 2. But a Dripping Springs team that could have as many as eight seniors go on to play college volleyball (six have already signed) rallied to avoid going down two sets to none.
The Tigers closed the set with an 8-0 run to tie the match at one set apiece. That ended a streak of 14 consecutive sets won by Lovejoy at the state tournament.
"Set 2, we let them off the hook," Lovejoy coach Jason Nicholson said. "If we can really pounce on them right there, it might change the outcome."
In the third set, Lovejoy again had a chance to take control, leading 22-19. Dripping Springs, though, showed why it was ranked No. 1 in the state for much of the season, winning six of the final seven points to steal the momentum and the set.
"We were not able to close the deal in sets 2 and 3," said Nicholson, who has led the Leopards to the state final in each of his two seasons as Lovejoy's coach. "They've got a lot of good players, too. It was a lot of them putting pressure on us."
In the fourth set, it was Lovejoy's turn to make a stunning comeback. With Dripping Springs leading 17-14 and eight points from a state title, Lovejoy won the next five points to start an 11-3 run.
That put Lovejoy in a fifth set in a state championship match for the first time since 2011, when it beat Abilene Wylie to win the fourth of its five consecutive state championships. But Lovejoy never led in the fifth set Saturday. Dripping Springs raced to an 8-3 lead, and the Leopards couldn't get closer than two points the rest of the way.
Both teams featured a first-team Under Armour All-American -- Greer for Dripping Springs and 6-3 TCU signee Sarah Langs for Lovejoy. Langs, who was on Lovejoy's state championship teams in 2012 and 2014, had 11 kills in her final high school match.
Dripping Springs brought a large crowd to Saturday's match, including its band, and the Tigers' fans chanted "Fear the Greer" as the all-state outside hitter celebrated with her teammates after being named the MVP of the state final. Greer, a Florida signee who was limited to nine kills by Lovejoy in last year's championship match, tripled that total Saturday while committing only eight errors in 64 total attack attempts.
Junior Haley Deschenes led Lovejoy with 17 kills, and junior Callie Holden had 15 kills. Mississippi signee Jordan Fate added 49 assists and 12 digs, and junior Illinois pledge Lexie Smith had 21 digs.
Lovejoy played without standout middle blocker Bailey Downing. The 6-0 junior, who was SportsDay's All-Area Newcomer of the year in 2014, missed her fourth consecutive match because of a sprained ankle.
Twitter: @DMNGregRiddle
