The Brownwood Lady Lions opened the 2026 volleyball season with a straight-sets loss to the Early Lady Horns on Tuesday night at Warren Gym, falling 25-17, 25-12 and 25-18.
Early moved to 1-0, while Brownwood began the season 0-1 in the second year under head coach Kristen Grimes. The Lady Horns took control after the teams were tied at 11 in the opening set and maintained that advantage through the remainder of the match.
Early regains control after opening-set tie
Early entered the season after its most successful campaign in program history. The Lady Horns went 28-8 last year and reached the postseason in 2025, then returned four key contributors: Aubrie DeVillier, Grey Pruett, Ellie Shea and Kailyn Gallardo. Head coach Missy Vaughn also added younger players to the roster.
The opening set was competitive through the middle stages. After the teams reached an 11-all tie, Early settled in and finished the set with a 25-17 victory. The Lady Horns then created more separation in the second set, winning 25-12, before closing the match with a 25-18 third-set result.
“What impressed me the most is coming out the way we did, and then turning things around,” Vaughn said. “I thought we started off slow but then we started to get things rolling. There was a lot of teamwork, a lot of communication and a lot of hustle. We made a lot of great plays defensively and were able to get the point just by playing ball.”
DeVillier led Early’s attack with nine kills. Pruett added seven kills, Gallardo had five, Shea recorded three, Ella DeVillier finished with two, and Jamie Lyon and Racy Pruett each had one.
Pruett directed the offense with 11 assists, followed by eight from Sunny Groom and one each from Lyon and Aubrie DeVillier. Pruett also served three aces. Aubrie DeVillier added two aces, while Groom and Gallardo each had one.
Early’s defensive effort was led by 13 digs from Aubrie DeVillier and 12 apiece from Lyon and Groom. Gallardo and Grey Pruett each recorded seven digs. At the net, Shea and Ella DeVillier had two blocks apiece, while Grey Pruett added one.
Brownwood works through new combinations
Brownwood is rebuilding after losing seven players from last season’s 16-19 squad. That team won the program’s first two district matches since 2021. Kaydence Chandler and Demayha Hooker were among last year’s pivotal contributors, while Camryn Gipson and Ashantia Green returned this season with expanded roles.
The rest of Brownwood’s 12-player varsity roster is new. That lack of experience together was especially apparent among the setters and hitters, who had not previously played alongside one another. Grimes said the team had been together for only five days before the opener.
“We did see some good things,” Grimes said. “Our passing was pretty decent tonight, probably the best part of our game, and that’s what I would like our staple to be, that we’re a good passing and good ball control team. Our defense was decent, there were a few here and there that dropped that shouldn’t have, but overall our ball control was the most positive thing in our match tonight.”
Green led the Lady Lions with six kills, followed by five each from Chandler and Hooker and four from Gipson. Abby Brasher distributed nine assists, Lexi Driskill had six, Jordan Brixey recorded four, and Chandler added one assist.
Driskill served two aces, while Green, Brasher and Brixey each recorded one. Green also led Brownwood defensively with 11 digs. Brasher had 10, Brixey had six, Kimber McLean had five, Hooker, Driskill and Kendall Ratliff each had three, Chandler had two, and Gipson had one.
Hooker’s six blocks led both teams. Chandler added one block for Brownwood.
Grimes said errors played a major role in the result. Brownwood committed 46 errors in a match that produced 75 total points, meaning more than half of the points allowed came from the Lady Lions’ mistakes. She also pointed to blocking and out-of-system attacking as areas the team must improve.
“We do have young setters, and our hitters and setters have never played together. There’s going to be pick ups, there’s going to be part times where we don’t connect, and that’s OK because we’ve only had five days together. We just have to work through it. We talked about feedback with each other making sure we’re providing that feedback so we can build from what we’re doing. I’d also like to see us get better with our blocking and our out of system attacking.”
Lady Lions head to Abilene tournament
Brownwood’s next competition will be the Abilene Bev Ball Classic this weekend. Grimes said the Lady Lions will concentrate on maintaining their ball control, energy and communication during the tournament.
The coach said the team experienced dips in energy and communication during the opener and wants those elements to become automatic before the players shift their attention more fully to strategy and how to approach individual opponents.
“I’d like to see us continue to capitalize on our ball control,” Grimes said of the tournament objectives for the Lady Lions. “Something we talked about today is we should never have to question if we are going as hard as we can. We had some dips in our energy and our communication tonight and that’s one of our non-negotiables we talk about every day. That’s what we’re going to focus on this weekend so we can have that as muscle memory and something we don’t have to continue to talk about so that we can talk about strategy and how to approach our opponent.”
Early will travel to Brady for tournament action. Vaughn said the Lady Horns’ focus will be on becoming more aggressive offensively.
“I want to see a lot more attacking the ball,” Vaughn said of Early’s tournament goals.
Tuesday’s other local volleyball results included Bangs defeating Abilene TLCA, Zephyr beating Rising Star, Coleman sweeping Rochelle, Richland Springs defeating Paint Rock, Brookesmith falling to Olfen in five sets, and Comanche being defeated by Lipan.