Chalk up another big 3-0 win over a tough program for the Lady Cavaliers.

Lake Travis (45-3) topped Cibolo Steele Tuesday night at Canyon Lake High School, 25-20, 26-24, 25-19 – earning a berth to the regional tournament, and putting the team two wins away from another trip to the state semifinal.

After over a month of facing a lot of pushovers in district play, the Lady Cavs are relishing big games against tough opponents.

“We are so ready for the regional tournament,” libero Mackenzie Mayo said. “So excited and so ready.”

Lake Travis head coach Julie Green agreed after watching her team dominate the Lady Knights.

“I’m so excited with the way they played,” Green gushed. “I love this time of year, the girls are so smart and we come in each week with a scouting report and a plan. We never go in blind. We know what we’re up against and we adjust accordingly, and I’m so proud of the girls for playing that way.”

After falling behind 10-4 in the first game, with the Steele side of the gym rocking, Lake Travis rallied to a momentum-killing win. Steele’s all-everything standout McKenzie Adams has been on of the best players in the state this year, but even after her hot start to the match, Lake Travis didn’t seem phased, even if there were some tenuous moments for fans.

“I wasn’t really ever worried about it,” Mayo said. “We were pretty confident about it. When they went on a run, we did what we do best which is come back. We never get down and we never give up. Their crowd yelling just reinforces us, we take it as a positive thing.”

For a while, it looked like Steele would get revenge with a second-game win. But down 24-21, Lake Travis rallied again.

“I definitely feel like in the first game, they could have felt like we got lucky with that win. But in the second game, when we came back from down 24-21, I thought that showed tremendous poise on our part, gave us a great boost and broke their will a little bit,” Green said. “At that point, I felt like if we came out strong in the third game, we’d be fine.”

That’s exactly what they did, jumping out to a 12-3 lead that carried them the rest of the way. Adams still had a dominant performance, but it just wasn’t enough. Lake Travis outside hitter Amy Neal seemed to counter each of Adams’ big hits with one of her own, and every other Lady Cav seemed to step up and make a big play when it was their turn, just like they have much of the year.

“The kids were so sure of themselves. Our motto coming in was that one player could not beat one team,” Green said. “We didn’t have to have any one player make all the plays, we knew we’d get our hits and the she would also get her hits, but we’d be fine. We had a lot of options coming in, and everything worked.”

Still, it’s never easy to stop a player as powerful as Adams, even if Lake Travis seemed to neutralize the threat through most of the game.

“Staying low and moving through the ball are key, and seeing where the ball is coming from with someone like that,” Mayo said of digging an Adams hit. “It’s really hard when it’s coming through a block, but that didn’t really happen much tonight. Our blockers did a good job taking care of the ball.”

It was the same thing Lake Travis did a year ago in the regional final against Adams and the Lady Knights.

“We saw her dominance as a positive thing, we knew she was the same person she was last year and we did the same things we did last year when we beat them,” Mayo said. “Our back row was awesome. Sammie Zonona was great tonight.”

“I definitely feel encouraged by the win,” Green said. “We knew Steele was going to be one of the toughest games of the year, and we’re really excited to come out with the kind of win we did.”

Lake Travis will play in the regional semifinal on Friday at the University of Texas-San Antonio against the winner of the S.A. Harlandale – Uvalde match. The time of that Friday match was not available at press time. The region final will be Saturday in the same location.

Lake Travis reached the third round of the playoffs after cruising past Boerne Champion and Crockett in the first two rounds of the playoffs.