STEPHENVILLE - Wylie volleyball soared to a new height Friday night.

Coach Shay Cox’s team, ranked No. 7 in Class 5A had lost twice in the third round of the Class 5A Division II playoffs before downing No. 6 Eagle Mountain 3-1.

Wylie won 29-27, 25-12, 23-25, 25-19 to advance to the Region I final.

The win sends Wylie to the Region I final against No. 1 Argyle. The match is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Lipan High School gym. Lipan, a small-school basketball powerhouse, is just over 100 miles east of Abilene, south of I-20.

The win over Eagle Mountain was Wylie’s 21st straight win and pushed its season record to 37-4.

“A total team effort,” coach Shay Cox. “We worked hard to sustain our pace, as well as our energy against a solid Eagle Mountain team. I am so proud of every player on the team.

Eagle Mountain closed its season at 35-8.

Wylie faced a challenge in the Knights, who won the 2025 Class 4A Division II title with a 3-1 win over Wimberly.

Cox praised her back-row defense.

“(They) did a great job of getting the ball in our setter’s hands, and they went to work,” she said. “It was exciting to watch our hitters and blockers create, and deny, opportunities all night.”

Morgan Bearden had 10 of her team’s 27 digs, with Kiki Bolden adding nine.

Wylie had just two serving errors.

NEXT STOP, NEXT STEP, ARGYLE

The Bulldogs now will face the team that twice has ousted them in the third round.

Argyle eliminated Wichita Falls Memorial, the District 4-5A runnerup to Wylie, 3-0 in its Region I semifinal Friday.

The set scores were 25-10, 28-26, 25-21.

Argyle is 38-5, with one loss to Eagle Mountain in non-district play. The Eagles swept the Knights in district play.

The winner advances to the state semifinals.

“It’s exciting. We’re excited about our chances and what we’re bringing into the match,” Cox said. “We’ve had Argyle on the brain since this time last year. We knew there were a lot of games and practices in front us, but we’ve been locked in and focused.

“Ultimately, we knew this is where we wanted to be.”

The Eagles may not have Wylie on the brain, but Cox said Argyle coach Katelyn Johnson has scouted the Bulldogs. She was in the stands at the Eagle Mountain match.

“I know they’re paying attention to us. We are definitely on their radar now. But I felt (Johnson) had a feeling after how well we played them last year that it might come down to the two of us,” Cox said.

Cox said Argyle is solid and “we’re going to have to work. They’re No. 1 for a reason.”

The Eagles have fielded a younger team this year but experience never is in short supply in volleyball.

“You know you’re going to get a team that doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. Solid attack, solid block. They’re coming at us with both barrels, and they play great defense.”

Cox said the rematch comes at the best time for her team.

“We’re playing our best volleyball right now, going off of Friday night,” she said. “We may not be tattooed on their brains, but they definitely are on ours. They’re who we’ve got to go through to get any further.”

This is the furthest Wylie has advanced in volleyball at the 5A level.

'PLAY OUR GAME AND HAVE FUN'

Junior Morgan Bearden said Wylie has stepped it up in the playoffs.

“We’ve been playing really well,” she said. “Overall, this season has been better than last season, so we’re ready for Argyle. This is what we’ve been aiming for.

“Now that we’ve made it past round three, we’re more than ready.”

Said hard-hitting Kiki Bolden, “I’ve been telling the girls that we can do it if we just play our game and have fun.

“Play like we did against Eagle Mountain because if we do that, I think we’re good.”

Added Morgan, “We’re in the zone.”

What went so well for Wylie last week?

“I’ve never seen us play like that,” Bearden said. ”Everyone was on.”

Bolden pointed to serve-received and getting the big shot when one was needed.

“We had really good block touches,” she said.

Said Bearden, “We had very few errors, and we served really clean.”

Bolden said Wylie sent hard serves over the net, and that got Eagle Mountain setters our of synch.

“Yeah, I think our serves definitely pushed them out,” Bearden said.

The players said playing Eagle Mountain before Argyle was important. The past two years, Wylie has come off fairly easy wins in the second round against El Paso area teams only to face a huge jump in competition.

“Coming off a hard game better prepared us to play Argyle this year,” Bearden said. “We went from El Paso straight into Argyle.”

Also, playing a competitive match last year against Argyle is a plus.

“We put up a really good fight,” Bolden said. Argyle won 25-14, 25-22, 25-20.

“I feel like we needed to execute more, and we’re doing that this year,” Bolden said. All the drills repeated in practice have been paying off on the court, she said.

Argyle will get its points and, most likely, its sets. How will Wylie react?

“That just fires us up even more,” Bolden said. “Just moving on.”

Wylie may bring a chip on its shoulder. Bearden and Bolden both felt the vibe was that Wylie would lose to Eagle Mountain because now the Bulldogs were facing the best teams at the east end of Region 1.

“That just fired us up even more,” Bolden.

The juniors would also like to give the seniors a great sendoff.

“They have been waiting for it all season,” Bearden said. “For our juniors, too.”

Said Bolden,” We’re a really talented group of girls, so we’re all ready for it.”

CROSS COUNTRY: DUDLEY

At Round Rock, Wylie sophomore Amari Dudley finished 102nd at the Class 5A girls cross country meet Saturday.

Dudley, who qualified from Region I as an individual runner, clocked a 20:19.5 over the 5,000-meter course at Old Settlers Park.

Mia Garcia of Abilene Cooper was 16th (18:37.7) to lead four runners from District 4-5A who finished among the top 10 at Lubbock. Teammate Lila Murillo was 26th (18:53.6).

Aubrey Duran of Abilene High, who ran at the state team last year, was 78th (19:50.1).

Region I champ Amelia Anderson of Lubbock High won the meet with a time of 17:47.1. Runnerup Savanah Moya of New Braunfels clocked a 17:56.0. They were the only two runners under 18 minutes on the challenging state course.

BASKETBALL: GIRLS HOOPS IS 1-0

At Dallas, the Wylie girls opened the basketball season with a 40-28 win over Canton at the South Oak Cliff Showcase.

Coach Duane Hopper’s team plays again at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Seminole before hosting the Stanley Whisenhunt Class beginning Thursday in the WHS gym.

FOOTBALL: BULLDOGS OPEN PLAYOFFS AT HOME

The Wylie football team closed the regular season at 7-3 and was the second-place team in District 2-5A with a 49-32 win over Southtown rival Abilene Cooper on Friday.

It was Wylie’s fifth straight win over Cooper.

The Bulldogs face El Paso Del Valle at 7 p.m. Friday at Sandifer Stadium. Del Valle was third in District 1-5A, losing Friday to league champion Hanks, 35-28. Del Valle is 6-4 overall.

Wylie and Del Valle never have played in football.

The Bulldogs missed the playoffs last year. In 2024, district champion Wylie opened the playoffs with a 46-10 bi-district win over El Paso Andress, also at Sandifer Stadium.

In other recent bi-district games against El Paso, all played at Wylie:
2023: Wylie 55, Andress 7
2022: Wylie 54, El Paso High 14