Friendswood Mustangs Look to Continue Their Rich Tradition in 2020
The next stop on our high school series around the state brings us back to the surrounding areas of Houston. We are going to introduce you to the District 22-5A Friendswood Mustangs. They are located on the Southeast side…
Access all of Prep Dig
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingThe next stop on our high school series around the state brings us back to the surrounding areas of Houston. We are going to introduce you to the District 22-5A Friendswood Mustangs.
They are located on the Southeast side of the outskirts of Houston. The Mustang program has owned their district for the last thirty years. They have a rich winning tradition in their volleyball program having made it to the Regional Finals thirteen times in the last twenty years. This program is pumping out deep runs into the playoffs year in and year out. This coming year should be no different as they return a lot of their team that was just crowned Regional Champions and made it to State last year.
The leader of the Mustangs is head coach Sarah Paulk. Coach Paulk will begin her 5th season at Friendswood High School in the fall of 2020. In 2019 Paulk’s team was crowned Regional Champions and took a trip back to the state tournament. For the third year in a row they were undefeated district champions also. She was named GHVCA coach of the year and a TGCA All star coach. In 2018 Paulk led the Mustangs to the Regional finals and completed an undefeated district season as well. She was named Galveston County coach of the year for her efforts. In 2017 Paulk led the Mustangs to an undefeated district championship as well as the regional quarterfinal round of playoffs. She was also named the 24-6A Coach of the year. She has extensive experience in volleyball. Prior to Friendswood, she was at Manvel and before that she coached at Pearland. We had a chance to sit down with coach Paulk to discuss her program and here is a little from our conversation.
Prep Dig TX: What do you love about the school?
Coach Paulk: Friendswood is a great community and although a 5A school still very much has the small town feel with homecoming parades, little league parades, 4th of July parades and concerts in the park. The community supports the HS so much and the administration is great! Everyone wears their Friensdwood blue (royal blue) all the time! Not only are the sports very competitive year in and year out, but all of the programs are. It’s an amazing academic school as well.
Prep Dig TX: What do you love about your volleyball program the most?
Coach Paulk: The kids. They work hard and are very respectful. They play hard for me. Also the traditions that have been passed down from years prior.
Prep Dig TX: What is your coaching philosophy and how do you apply it to your teams?
Coach Paulk: I believe in positivity, building relationships, consistency, and setting high expectations. I think the biggest thing I have stuck to is to set high(realistic) expectations for the program as a whole and be consistent. I try to make the program a family and team atmosphere and make sure that all girls know that no one player is bigger than the program. I lay out expectations early and give them ways to reach those while holding them accountable along the way. To do any of this you have to have the players respect and buy in and to do that they have to be able to trust you and have a relationship with you. You have to work to build those relationships early on from the time they come to camp in elementary school to when they are playing for you in high school.
Prep Dig TX: Any other coaches or staff you would like to highlight?
Coach Paulk: I have a great coaching staff. Coach Shayna Sauers has been at Friendswood for 7 years and we have worked together for the last four. She is the varsity assistant and is very important in the success of our program. She helps to plan practice, make lineup decisions, bounce ideas off of one another and everything else that goes into our program. She has a great volleyball mind and I love working with her! Coach Tiffany Blevins (Thomas) just finished her 1st season with us as the JV coach and she did a great job as well! She is an alumnus of FHS so that brings a great amount of pride. All three of us played college volleyball so we have a good amount of experience in the game, which helps tremendously.
Now let’s meet some of the players who will help the program keep its winning tradition alive. They are hungry for another run at State.
Ashlyn Svoboda (2021) 5-10 Outside (HS: Friendswood/Club: AVA-Absolute Volleyball/Verbal: Northwestern State)
Ashlyn has a very strong frame and utilizes it well on offense. She has great power on the pins and scores very efficiently. One thing that truly stands out is her court awareness and reaction time to dig hard driven balls. In the back row, she is always in the right place to dig. She collapses her body very well to dig the hard ball and softens the contact well. She plays on a very good AVA club team that has exceptional training. According to coach Paulk, Ashlyn is one of the most competitive kids that she has coached. She is a 6 rotation outside that is a primary passer and best defensive player on the Friendswood team. She was a captain this past season and will be looked heavily upon in the coming season. She has great ball control and will likely play libero in college where she has committed to Northwestern State University. She makes everyone on the court better and demands the best from her teammates. Ashlyn was a 2019 Regional Champion and State Qualifier. She was named to the 2019 UIL State All Tournament Team, 2019 TGCA All State, and 2019 TGCA All Star Team. As well as 2019 22-5A Offense MVP. Also she was named the GHVCA player of the year again in 2019. Her sophomore(2018) year she was 2018 TGCA, TAVC, VYPE All State, 2018 GHVCA Player of the year, 2018 All Galveston County, 2018 District MVP, and 2018 Houston Chronicle Newcomer of the year.
Alessandra Meoni (2021) 5-11 Right Side (HS: Friendswood/Club: AVA-Absolute Volleyball/Verbal: Uncommitted)
Alessandra moved with her family to the United States from Italy early August this past year. She has done a tremendous job helping Friendswood reach the state tournament. She completely dominated the regional tournament and helped them get to state. She is a 5’11 left handed right side hitter who plays 6 rotations. She has such raw power when she contacts that opponents must block well to slow her down. The best part of her offense has to be her timing. She is able to get on top of the ball and hit straight down when she wants to. She is a true competitor. Her dad was on the Italian Olympic team as a setter so volleyball runs deep in her genes. Ale was a 2019 Regional Champion, State Qualifier, named to the 2019 TGCA All State team, and 2019 District Newcomer of the year. She should have a fantastic senior season this coming year.
Kate Bueche (2022) 5-7 Libero (HS: Friendswood/Club: AVA-Absolute Volleyball/Verbal: Uncommitted)
Miss Bueche can fly. She is very quick off of the ground as a hitter and extremely fast around the court as a defender. She is blessed with amazing fast-twitch muscles that help her speed and agility. She is a lot of fun to watch on the court. She has a very nice jump float that falls right over the net. Kate was a primary passer the entire season. Played libero as a freshman and switched to outside at the beginning of her sophomore season. She switched back to libero towards the end of district play due to an injury to the starting libero and did an outstanding job through all of the playoffs. She is a tremendous athlete with an incredible vertical. She was named to the 1st team all district her freshman and sophomore seasons as well as All County 1st team. She was also named to Prep Volleyballs High Honorable mention team.
Sarah Sitton (2022) 6-2 Middle Blocker (HS: Friendswood/Club: Houston Stellar/Verbal: Uncommitted)
Sarah was a first year varsity member this year and did a great job for the Mustang Program. She consistently improved through the entire season and played her best games in the regional and state tournament. She was able to tally up 208 kills and 106 total blocks as a middle blocker in her lone season on Varsity. She has tremendous upside. She touched 9’10 as a freshman and is continuing to become a dominating force in the middle. She has also stepped into more of a leadership roll this winter/early spring and we look to continue that this fall. She was named to the Prep Volleyball Sophomore 79 Elite honorable mention list , 1st team all district, and academic all district this past season. The Mustangs are looking for her to improve on her great performance last year and she is ready to step up to the challenge.
Cierra Pesak (2023) 5-8 Outside (HS: Friendswood/Club: AVA-Absolute Volleyball/Verbal: Uncommitted)
Cici as her fam and friends call her has played both defensively and offensively on the vball court for her AVA club team. She has very fast footwork that allows her to transition very well off the net to attack. At Friendswood, Cierra played DS for the majority of the season before moving to the second outside position with two district games left due to an injury to another player. As a freshman she started and played six rotations throughout all of the playoffs and into the state tournament. She was a primary passer and played tremendous defense all season. Coach Paulk says that she has a very high volleyball IQ. She holds her teammates accountable on the court and goes all out always. She was named 2nd team all district and all county this past season. According to Coach, they will look to her heavily this coming year.
If you are a gambler, the good money would be on Friendswood to go deep into the playoffs just based on history alone. However, once you see these young players in action, it is almost a guarantee. Led by a coach who has tons of experience, the Mustangs are in great hands. Then you add hungry players who had a taste of State last year, you have yourself a recipe for some fireworks this coming season. Be on the lookout for the Mustangs come October. I will thoroughly enjoy covering their season in 2020.
There are many stories of schools and club teams similar to this that we will be covering. Stay tuned for more great info. If you think your school or club has a good story, please contact me and I will gladly communicate. You can email me at nov8vb@yahoo.com.