A veteran Bulldog team is loading up the schedule now with hopes of making a deeper playoff run later.

Article By Greg Jaklewicz

Photos by Texpix.com

Like the Bulldogs tennis team, the Wylie High volleyball squad started its fall sports slate on the road.

The results have been good for Shay Cox’s group, which she believes finally can power its way past the third round in the Class 5A Division II playoffs.

Wylie won 34 games last year but fell 3-0 to Argyle in the third round. It was the same ending to the 2024 season.

The work toward that goal has started.

The Bulldogs took two matches at Frenship High to start their ambitious schedule, then went 6-3 at a tournament in Mansfield to the east

WHS this week defeated Lee High School in Midland, to the west.

When school let out Wednesday, the team boarded the bus to go back east to Granbury for a weekend tourney, taking a 9-3 record.

Wylie normally has played in the local Bev Ball tourney but this year upped its challenge.

“We just wanted to see a little more competition - to see bigger, badder teams. It was exciting,” Cox said.

All three losses in Mansfield were in a row - 2-1 to 6A Arlington Martin, 2-0 to 6A Mansfield Lake Ridge, and 2-0 to 6A No. 3 Aledo (a state semifinalist in 2025). Martin and Lake Ridge were playoff teams last fall.

Wylie bounced back to beat Marcus and Colleyville Heritage 2-0 to start another win streak, then added to it with the 3-0 victory at Lee.

That was 12 games before the first week of school ended. There are plenty more before district play begins Sept. 22.

Fans won’t see Cox’s crew until Sept. 1, when Midland Christian comes to the WHS gym.

“Our expectations are high,” Cox said. “They are a very determined group. It’s matching what I expected. We did have three tough games, and we’d love to have each one of them back. I don’t feel like we were clearly outmatched. We just did some things here and there that we couldn’t clean up.”

Cox said her team would need to play almost flawless volleyball to beat Aledo “but we definitely hung with them the first set. We didn’t have the momentum very long, and we struggled a bit.”

Cox picked up her team, but also saw them lift each other.

“I told them we are not now who we’re going to be,” she said.

While her players were on the court in the summer, they now are working as the Bulldogs team.

“Every game we play we’re going to learn from it,”she said. “We need teams to expose our weaknesses - how can we clean that up. That’s what we’re looking to build on.”

Upping their game

Wylie lost one senior, standout Avery LaCroix.

This year’s team has six seniors, including 2025 all-staters Haddie Mock and junior Kiki Bolden. A Texas Girls Coaches Association all-star, Mock also was an all-tournament pick at Mansfield.

“That’s a lot of our power,” Cox said. “But we have some others just coming on.”

Taking over for LaCroix has been sophomore Catelee Loudermilk, although Karlee Cutbirth, a senior, and sophomore Grace Groban also have been strong on the right side for Wylie, she said.

Coming off a 34-8 season with a mostly intact lineup, Cox was pleased to see her players performing at a high level.

“I feel like everyone has upped their game,” she said of her players returning after a summer of club play, lessons and skills practice. “That’s exciting to see, but it also makes my job tougher on who’s going to get the nod and get to play.

“With their determination also has come maturity.”

While the girls off the court still act like 16- and 17-year-olds, “I see a lot of maturity on the court. How we came off that first loss with Martin. That was a tough loss but they said it for me: ‘Hey, this doesn’t define us. Let’s shake this off and get back at it.’ It was great to hear them say that.”

Cox said her team was “a little rocky” against Lee, probably due to the hectic schedule and still getting used to school. By the second set, the Bulldogs were finding their groove and pulled away.

She expects to see more intensity in Granbury, where Wylie was to open against Class 2A Crawford. The Pirates are ranked No. 2 in their classification. Lewisville and Canyon are next.

What the team learns at tournaments is to just play their game, then how to make adjustments against an unfamiliar team.

That strategy was employed against Lee, when Wylie changed defenses in the first set and moved on from its slow start.

An upcoming match to watch comes Aug. 25, when Wylie takes on Byron Nelson HS. Byron Nelson won the Class 6A Division I title last fall and is ranked No. 4 behind Aledo.

Also ahead are games against Bushland and Brock, both state-ranked in their classifications.

“These first three weeks I knew were going to be tough,” she said. “We’re trying to load our preseason with strong competition before district.

“Our seniors are really focused on doing well this year,” Cox said. That group includes Riley Calvo, Logan Hill, Kenley Collier and Kenzie Willberg. They want to get past that third round that keeps stopping us. We talk about that a lot.”