And so we meet again.

The Wylie High volleyball team, compiling one of its best seasons ever and certainly in Class 5A, earned a rematch with Argyle with a 25-16, 25-19, 25-10 sweep of El Paso Del Valle in a Class 5A, Division II area round matchup Tuesday in Fort Stockton.

Meanwhile, Argyle was taking a 3-0 win over Joshua to advance. Argyle won 25-15, 25-18, 25-17 after taking a 3-0 bi-district victory over Fort Worth Brewer

The teams play at 6 p.m. Friday in Graham. Wylie lost a flip to play Saturday but coach Shay Cox was able to pick in the site. She likes Graham’s uncluttered floor, which gives her athletic players room to chase down balls.

“This was the goal,” Cox said of meeting Argyle again in the playoffs. Across three months and 41 matches, this meeting was the goal.

Cox believes her team is ready for the match that would get Wylie to the fourth round, the Region I final, for the first time.

“That’s the goal. We want to be confident in each other and encourage each other,” Cox said. “Good things are going to happen if we do that.

“This is the biggest challenge and best opportunity we’ll have to play some great volleyball.”

ARGYLE IS... ARGYLE

The same two schools met in the same round in 2024, with Argyle sweeping Wylie 3-0. The scores were 25-18, 25-16, 25-7.

That last score was not indicative of Wylie' s ability.

“Sometimes in volleyball, when you make a couple of mistakes in a row, momentum just leaves you and you can’t even tie your shoe right,” she said.

“I feel like (this year) we’re talented all the way around and they’ve played a lot of volleyball together. I tell them, think about all the reps you've had. All the matches you’ve played. You have everything you need.”

Argyle went on to beat Lubbock-Cooper for the Region I title, then lost 25-13, 21-25, 25-15, 28-30, 15-12 to Frisco Wakeland in the state semifinals. Wakeland won the state title with a 3-0 sweep of Cedar Park.

So, the Eagles were that close to being the state champion.

That’s the obstacle in front of Wylie.

The winner plays for the Region I title against the winner of Lubbock-Cooper vs. Grapevine. While Lubbock-Cooper is in Wylie’s football district, it is not in volleyball.

There will be a new state champion. Lucas Lovejoy eliminated Wakeland 3-2 in their area-round match.

Argyle, which had seven seniors on the team last year, currently is the No. 1 ranked team in Division II and sports a 35-3 season mark.

“Last year, they had a great setter-right-side combination that really brought it hard at us,” Cox said. “This year, they still are very talented all the way around but they have multiple position players that are going everywhere. We’ll just have to play our game and work hard.

“We know what’s coming at us. It’s a pace that we like to play. We want to be in there fast and dig those balls and get after it.”

ARGYLE IS A TALL TEAM

“There won’t be a short block anywhere,” Cox said. Holes will be almost nonexistent. “”They all put up a good block, they all run well and they serve tough.”

Junior libero Logan Hill said Argyle’s height is just one challenge.

“They are tall but they have a really scrappy, really good defense, kind of similar to us. They know how to move the ball around and put it down,” she said. “They still have the same schemes and are really quick on the ball.”

And then she said it.

“They are beatable,” Hill said.

That wasn’t overconfidence talking; instead, that was Logan believing in her team.

“It’s going to take every point,” she said. “Determination. Grit. Everything we have.”

WYLIE IS... BETTER

Wylie is coming into the rematch fully loaded. The Bulldogs are 34-7 overall - WHS was 23-15 entering this match last year - and have a 14-match winning streak going.

Better, Wylie has won 21 straight sets. After falling behind Wichita Falls Memorial 2-0 in their showdown at Wylie, the Bulldogs won the final three matches to start that streak.

Hill said Wylie didn’t play its best in Fort Stockton.

“I think we underestimated them and played down to their level,” she said. “We need to do a better job of focusing in and taking care of business the first few sets so we don’t need to come back.”

It’s unlikely coming back will work against Argyle. It barely did against Memorial on Wylie’s home court.

Hill would like to see that flipped, with Argyle not prepared for what Wylie brings.

“And then we take them out,” she said.

Cox is not coddling her players by telling them they are good. Argyle is going to have to earn this win.

Hill said this year’s team is “more put together” than the 2024 squad. By that, she means “this year we’re playing as one and as a team.”

There is not selfishness, which, she said, hurt the Bulldogs at times last season.

“This team, we all love each other and have one goal,” Hill said.

“We are right back where we were last year,” she said. “Sometimes we don’t get the respect that Metroplex volleyball and big-city volleyball gets. We’re not quite the Panhandle or the big city, so I think we’re caught in between and they don’t fear us.

“But we are playing good volleyball. We have been challenged this year and we’ve met those challenges. This is our next big one and we’ll go at it with everything we’ve got.”

To beat Argyle and move on?

“I’m not going to lie,. It would be everything,” Hill said. “We’ve been thinking about this moment since district started. The will to win is insane. We just want to beat them so bad.

“If we can beat Argyle, we can do anything.”

CLASS 5A PLAYOFF HISTORY

Here is how far Wylie has advanced in the Class 5A playoffs. The classification was split into Divisions 1 and 2 last fall, with Frisco Wakeland winning the first Division II title.

2024 - Region 1 semifinals; 3-0 loss to Argyle
2023 - Region 1 area, 3-1 loss to El Paso High
2022 - Region 1 area, 3-2 loss to El Paso High
2021 - Region 1 semifinals, 3-0 loss to Canyon Randall
2020 - Region I bi-district, 3-2 loss to Randall
2019 - Region I area, 3-1 loss to El Paso Chapin
2018 - Region 1 area, 3-0 loss to Amarillo High