TJC (22-20) plays the early match at 5 p.m. Friday, followed by Navarro (32-6) and Panola (24-12) at 7 p.m.

The semifinal winners will play at 2 p.m. Saturday for the right to advance to the NJCAA National Tournament Nov. 20-22 in West Plains, Mo.

The Apache Ladies have reasons to be optimistic about their chances against a Blinn program that has advanced to three straight national tournaments.

On Wednesday, TJC beat No. 18 Lee College for the first time in the program's history.

The see-saw battle saw the Apache Ladies take the first game, 30-19, then lose the next two, 27-30, 13-30, before controlling the final two, 30-20, 15-4. TJC ended the match on a 15-2 run.

McHenry and Ogbeide enjoyed a dream performance with a combined 22 blocks and 31 kills. Naomi Mays added eight blocks, and Nyeshia Aldridge contributed five aces in the fifth game.

"Lee had been playing really well and we struggled through the month of October," said TJC head coach Dana Hatch. "Hopefully we're turning things around."

Ogbeide, a former standout at Hurst L.D. Bell High School, said the strong performance took some pressure off the team entering the regional tournament.

TJC is seeded fourth - Blinn is first, after the Apache Ladies went 2-6 in conference play with both wins against Paris.

Another confidence builder came when TJC took a game from Blinn in their last meeting Oct. 19 by the score of 30-22. Blinn came back to win the match in four, although the third game could have gone either way.

"I don't think it's going to be our last match," Ogbeide said of the regional semifinal. "I don't see that at all."

Ogbeide said the key is for TJC to play with the same intensity and focus that it had against Lee.

"I still think we're the most athletic team in the conference ... we just need to all come together at once," she said. "That's what has been our problem the whole season."

Middle blockers are vital to a team's success at the college level. It's also not an easy position to learn.

Ogbeide says a middle blocker is responsible for everything that crosses the net. The middles are responsible for blocking, hitting, hitting around blocks when it's called for, and attempting to trick the opposing team's defense.

McHenry, a graduate of Liberty-Eylau, said another function of the middle blocker is to open up the floor across the net for the outside hitter to hit effectively.

"We're trying to get the other middle to follow us, to give the outside hitter on our side an opportunity," she said.

With so many responsibilities, it's no wonder Ogbeide says volleyball is 80 percent mental and 20 percent physical. Unlike high school, players can't get by on raw athleticism alone in college.

"You have to be disciplined in all your fundamentals," Ogbeide said.

Note: The other two sophomores for TJC are libero Frances Davies (Granbury) and setter Haley Hatch (Fort Worth Paschal).

Joe Buie covers sports. He can be reached at 903.596.6293. e-mail: sports@tylerpaper.com