BY JASON DELLA ROSA

HERALD DEMOCRAT

SAVOY -- Macalla Mosley went to bed a backup and woke up a starter.

The sophomore setter was prepared to be a reserve for Savoy's playoff-opening match on Tuesday but an emergency appendectomy to classmate Whitney Cooke pressed Mosley into the starting lineup.

"I had never really played the setter position on varsity," said Mosley, who was the junior varsity setter last season. "I think I did the best that I could."

Mosley finished with 20 assists as Savoy swept Dallas Faith Academy, 25-12, 25-5, 25-4, in a Class 1A Region II bi-district match at Savoy.

"Macalla has been a setter before. She knows the rotations and where to go," Savoy head coach Page Foster said. "I think she handled it well. There's a few things I had to tell her to fix and she did. It's hard to just throw a sophomore out there."

The Lady Cardinals (24-10) will play Evant in the area round at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday at Alvarado. Savoy swept this match-up in the same round last year.

"I think it's a little advantage," Foster said. "I feel confident and the girls are confident."

Last season Savoy earned the first playoff victories in program history with a run to the region semifinals after sharing the District 11-A title with Lindsay and Collinsville.

This year the Lady Cardinals finished second to Lindsay, which finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in the Texas Girls Coaches Association poll, but are on the verge of matching last year's victory total when they went 25-22.

"I had high expectations for the girls," Foster said. "I expect us to go as far as we did if not further than last year. It's different now that we have a starter out."

Cooke's season-ending situation is just the latest obstacle for the Lady Cardinals to overcome. As district play came to an end, Savoy had to cancel a match with Lindsay because four starters were sidelined with the flu.

"We've battled sickness and injury this season," Foster said. "These girls, they know what to do and where they need to be so it's easy to fill in when they need to do that."

Savoy never trailed against Dallas Faith Academy and the widening leads allowed Mosley to assimilate herself as the leader of the offense. She connected well in the early going with Natalie Brasher, who led the way with eight kills.

"It helped me get used to playing the position," Mosley said. "I talked to the girls, got used to where they wanted it."

Bailey McGehee added six kills and Emily Cornell, Caitlin McClain and Lauren Camp each put down three.

Dallas Faith Academy put together back-to-back points only one time and in Game 2 the Lady Eagles made errors on three of their five serves.

Meanwhile Savoy had 21 aces -- seven by McClain and six from McGehee -- and used a 7-1 run to finish off the second stanza.

In Game 3 the Lady Cardinals used a pair of huge runs to finish off the match. Savoy used an 8-0 burst to take a 14-2 lead and then closed the match on an 11-0 run.

"We had to stay in playoff form," Foster said. "We can't start getting sloppy."