Wall Topples San Angelo Central to Win Nita Vannoy Volleyball Title

SAN ANGELO, TX — The Wall Lady Hawks completed a perfect run through the Nita Vannoy Volleyball Tournament on Saturday with a 28-26, 25-23 win over San Angelo Central in the championship match.

Wall didn’t drop a set all weekend, sweeping through six matches to claim the title.

The Lady Hawks made their best run in program history last year by reaching the Class 3A Division II state semifinals. Now they have a signature win early in this season over a Class 6A opponent.

Wall had to survive a late rally by Central before hanging on for the win.

“I’m super proud of them,” Wall head coach Kimberly Branch said. “They went out and held their own. There at the end, I could’ve called a timeout, but I told them we’ve got to play through it. (Central had) used their two timeouts, and I didn’t want to give their coach (Julie Williams) a chance to talk to them again, because she does a phenomenal job. And coming out of timeouts, they went on a run, so I was proud of our girls for holding their own and finding a way to win.”

Wall improved to 10-2. The Lady Hawks’ only two losses this year were to 4A Brock (ranked No. 11 in the state) and 5A Celina.

Central fell to 9-3 after reaching the Nita Vannoy Tournament final for the fifth straight year. The Lady Cats won the title in 2023 and ‘24, but they’ve been the runner-up the last two seasons.

Wall will continue to test itself the next couple weeks before the start of district play Sept. 12 against Merkel. The Lady Hawks have matches coming up against bigger schools like Andrews, Odessa High, Lubbock High, El Paso High, Odessa Permian and Brownwood.

"We're hot, but there are some things we definitely need to clean up," Branch said. "You can still tell it's early in the season. But the way volleyball is, we start district in (a few weeks), so we're going to hit the ground running."

After Wall's best season in program history last year — highlighted by a win over No. 1 Holliday in the regional final — the Lady Hawks are hungry for more this season, Branch said.

"I think we kind of left last season, even though we were proud of our state berth, we were a little bitter and had a little chip on our shoulder. So I think we just want to build on this and hopefully be back there again," Branch said.

Wall's run this weekend included wins over Fort Stockton, Loraine, Lake View, Seminole and Presidio.

Seminole is ranked No. 8 in the state in Class 4A, so that was a signature win as well.

Senior Lexi Kemp talked about how Wall was able to take down Central to win the title.

"I thought we played very well as a team, and we continued to do what works during the game, and that was staying aggressive at the net 100% and also just staying positive. When we'd lose a point, we'd come right back swinging," Kemp said.

Central will try to shake off Saturday's loss when it travels to play Midland Christian on Tuesday. The Lady Cats don't begin district play until Sept. 25 at home against Midland High.

Another highlight from the weekend was 1A Sterling City winning the Bronze Division title with back-to-back wins over Lake View in the semifinals and TLCA San Angelo in the final. TLCA earned a win over 4A Plainview to reach the final.

Sweetwater defeated Paint Rock in the final of the Bronze Challenger Division.

MORE: Nita Vannoy Volleyball Tournament Results