Three county athletes were named to the Texas Girls Coaches Association all-state volleyball teams.
Charity Brawner and Bailey Melton from Saint Jo and Averee Kleinhans from Nocona were selected from Montague County as each player helped their teams and programs push farther than they have in recent memory.
Both seniors, Brawner and Melton helped push the Lady Panther’s volleyball program to the regional quarterfinals last year and all the way to the regional finals this year. As only a sophomore, Kleinhans helped the Lady Indians to the regional quarterfinals for the first time since 2013.
All three players shined in their positional roles, but were versatile enough defensively to never come off the court and play in the back rows.
Brawner was a setter and was named her district’s most valuable player, but she was more than a setter. She blocked in the front row, played defense in the back, could attack with spikes, employed aggressive dump sets and varied her sets among five different attackers to keep defenses off balance.
Kleinhans also was named her district’s most valuable player. As an outside hitter, she was an attacker that never stopped coming. She varied up her spikes enough from hard hits, aimed hits and tips that made her unpredictable. Besides that, she also easily led her team in digs, employed a hard hitting jump serve and was the emotional heart of the team that was up when she was up.
Melton was a middle blocker and was named the offensive most valuable player of her district. Standing 5-foot-10-inches, she was the size Saint Jo needed to not get dwarfed at the net against bigger teams. She was offensively a trump card after steady doses of outside hits from her teammates. Her size also allowed her to block and was good enough to play in the back row.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.