WALLER — Montgomery was swept by Brenham for the second time on Oct. 17. That left the Bears on the brink of missing the playoffs.
Fast forward three weeks, and Montgomery is headed to the Region III-5A tournament.
The Bears turned the tables on Brenham at Waller High School Tuesday night with a 25-17, 25-17, 16-25, 26-24 regional quarterfinal win.
One year after missing the playoffs, Montgomery (32-17) returns to the Sweet 16 round for the first time since 2013. The Bears will meet state-ranked Fulshear in the regional semifinals at 5 p.m. Friday at Merrell Center in Katy.
Montgomery has won seven straight matches since that final loss to Brenham (35-13).
“It’s unreal,” Montgomery senior Kaysie Lynch said. “I feel like at this point, nothing can stop us.”
Bears head coach Stormi Champion is a 2011 graduate of Montgomery and in her second year leading the program.
“I was in the regional tournament, and we got knocked out by Brenham my junior year,” Champion said. “It’s kind of sweet to do the opposite this year — to go to the regional tournament. I’m just so incredibly proud of the fight that they have. They have not lost it this entire time.”
Montgomery trailed Brenham 17-11 in the fourth set before taking 11 of 16 points to tie things at 22. It was a 6-0 run with Abby Mullins serving that put the Bears up 24-22. Brenham took the next two points before a service error and a kill by Delaney Wright clinched the win for Montgomery.
“I think we kind of realized that we need to win this set to win the match,” Lynch said. “We got on fire again. We got lost a little bit. But once we got back together as a team and we had a lot of energy, we pulled through.”
After being swept in both district meetings, Montgomery took control of the first set from the start.
Leading the whole way, Grace Ellis slammed home the winning kill for the eight-point set win over the Cubs.
A third match with Brenham gave Montgomery a lot of information to use in preparation.
“We knew their tendencies, we knew where they were going,” Lynch said. “We knew their strongest hitters, and we knew where to serve to. But on the other hand, they swept us both times. We knew we had to come out and just go hard.”
The second set was a bit closer than the first, but the result was the same score.
Early on, the teams tied on eight different occurrences with a couple lead changes.
Montgomery Wright, a freshman, kept her team steady with at least seven kills in the set.
A late 8-1 run sparked by the serving of Ellie Sadler created separation before Ellis put down another winning kill for the two-set lead.
“I would definitely say we were the underdogs,” Champion said. “They’re a phenomenal team, and we knew we were going to have to fight in order to persevere. When we got the first two sets, it was exciting. But I told them, ‘They’re going to come back after you. You’ve got to continue to dig and work together.’ And they did.”
After a tight start to the third set, the Cubs broke loose for a 7-0 run that created the gap Montgomery couldn’t climb out of. Averi Frazier had two aces during that stretch, and Lillie Thibodeaux had a kill and a block to help Brenham get back in it.
While game planning and scouting for the match, Champion could tell how much her team has improved over the course of the season.
“I would absolutely say this is a different team,” Champion said. “As we scouted this week, just watching film of us from then until now, it’s insanely different. They’ve bonded together. They’ve really found it from within themselves and figured out how to work together and to persevere.”
After the regular season ended with a four-way tie for the final two spots in their district, the Bears went to work. They claimed wins over Magnolia and College Station and then beat Magnolia again in the tiebreaker match. One day later, Montgomery topped rival Lake Creek to take the No. 3 seed.
Since then, it’s been three five-set playoff matches.
Montgomery beat Killeen Ellison last Tuesday and Georgetown last Friday.
“It was a lot,” Lynch said of what it took to bounce back after last season’s 17-26 record. “Coming back from a season that we went 0-14 (in district), this season we knew we had to work hard and just be better than last season. With these playoffs, we kind of have a new energy. We have a new team and a new purpose with each other.”
