Lake Travis (10-1) is off to an even better start than the one from last year’s final four run.

The Lady Cavaliers breezed through the early portions of the Westwood Showcase Tournament last weekend, and topped 5A Allen twice before losing in the championship of the gold bracket to San Antonio Reagan, ranked fourth in the state in 5A.

For Lake Travis head coach Julie Green, it’s obviously a good sign.

“I think as a coach, you’re knocking on wood. You look at it and think we’re further ahead of last year’s team, not that we’re necessarily better, but we’re more put together,” she said. “I think what we’ve done is certainly amazing, but there’s still room to improve.”

Last year, Lake Travis entered the tournament having lost the season opener to Cedar Park and then went on to win the silver bracket of the tournament, which essentially amounts to the first consolation bracket. In one of the most competitive tournaments of the year, the Lady Cavaliers established themselves as one of the top two teams out of 36 invited.

And there really wasn’t much of a challenge in the first pool. Lake Travis dominated Cedar Park, Seguin and Killeen Ellison in two games each during day one, and topped Allen, Bryan and Conroe in round two.

In the championship bracket on day three, Lake Travis topped Leander, Allen again and then lost to Reagan. And even during the one loss, the team managed to be relentless the whole way. The team’s relentless nature is something that has stood out so far this season.

“It does feel different. These kids play a little more even. This group is more steady with their ups and downs. These kids play different as a group. Very even, intense and purposeful,” Green said. “The wins over Allen were huge, that’s a great 5A program, and we played great against them. With the circumstances coming in, especially with them beating Westwood, those were two big wins.”

But Reagan was a different challenge entirely.

“Reagan was just tough. Their servers got some runs on us. They were really balanced and it showed,” Green said. “We’ve played 10 games so far, and I’d say in eight we’ve been outstanding in serve receive. In that game we just had trouble siding out. Beyond that, we had a lot of trouble getting past their blocks. They were a really scrappy team.”

The tournament performance was clearly a sign of advanced progress despite only playing together for a couple weeks, and the team chemistry has pleasantly surprised Green.

“Our defense is really surprising me,” she said. “I knew we had good defensive players, but we’re playing really well as a unit.”

For their efforts, sophomores Amy Neal and Katy Beals were named to the all-tournament team.

“Amy did a great job all around for us this weekend,” Green said. “If it was just based on hitting, she probably would have made the team anyway. But she’s one of our most aggressive players in every respect, and can really do so many things. She’s really balanced.”

Once teams started catching on to the fact that Neal could hit with the best players at the tournament, she was challenged a little more often, and that’s when Green said the rest of her game really stood out.

“She just helps the team in every way she can,” Green said. “And besides that, a one hitter team won’t get you very far anyway.”

That’s where Beals came in. Slated to be one of the team’s setters, Beals did a little bit of everything during the tournament.

“She is so steady for us. She did a great job. Offensively, she ran her rotations well, but she also hit really well,” Green said. “She was huge for us on the right side. She’s a smart hitter and really athletic on the front row. It was a nice surprise because we spent so much time developing her as a setter, so seeing her click in so many other ways was really nice for us.”

Lake Travis took on Westwood Tuesday night (score not available at press time) and the Lady Cavs travel to the Ft. Worth Justin Northwest tournament this weekend. The home opener is Tues., Aug. 25 against McNeil.