FORT WORTH — Whether they had Guyer on the brain or had to wait too long to get on the court, the Ryan Lady Raiders weren’t at the top of their game on Tuesday.

Ryan waited and waited for its match to start while Denton and Aledo were playing, but with a distinct advantage in talent and size, Ryan was able to walk through Fort Worth Arlington Heights, 25-18, 25-21, 25-17, in the Class 4A Region I area round of the playoffs at Saginaw High School.

“We didn’t play as well as we’d like to have,” said Ryan head coach Cindy Williams. “I don’t think we played as well as we’re capable of. That team probably wasn’t one of the better opponents we’ve had this season and in preparation for the next round, we should be playing a lot more intense. Maybe we weren’t totally focused.”

The casual observer certainly wouldn’t have thought Ryan was off its game. The Lady Raiders trashed the Lady Jackets for much of the match, starting with a strong start in Game 1.

Ryan took a commanding 22-10 lead over Arlington Heights in the first frame behind setter Kate Harrison and the cannon arm of Keidra Williams. The two seniors propelled the Lady Raiders to a big lead before Ryan seemed to drop off.

The Lady Jackets outscored Ryan 8-3 to close the match, making a blowout Game 1 look closer than it was at 25-18.

“It wasn’t a horrible night,” said outside hitter Ryan Young, who had nine kills in the match and sparked the Lady Raiders in Game 2 with four straight kills. “Our passes were average. Our sets were average. Our hits were average. We knew what we needed to do and we got it done even though we knew we weren’t having our best night.”

Game 2 took a little more for Ryan than the first. The Lady Jackets played Ryan point-for-point, getting as close as 21-19. But two Keidra Williams kills and a phenomenal tip by Harrison allowed Ryan to pull away in the closing moments of the game.

“She had a couple of little bumps, but other than that, she had control [of the offense],” Cindy Williams said of Harrison. “I think we could have done better offensively as far as our hitting. We had several hitting errors.”

The Lady Raiders jumped out to an early 7-1 lead in Game 3 and maintained a healthy margin for most of the frame. Arlington Heights pulled within five at different points in the game, but couldn’t put together a run to cut Ryan’s lead significantly, despite emptying the bench looking for a spark.

Ryan shut the Lady Jackets down to win the game and the match by outscoring Arlington Heights 7-3 down the stretch.

“It’s exciting to have this round over, but the preparation for the next one should have been this one,” Cindy Williams said.

Keidra Williams tallied a match-high 14 kills while Sarah Telaneus had one of her better matches of the year, notching 11 kills. Harrison had 19 assists and seven kills. Maddy Taylor had 13 assists.

The win sets up a rematch with Guyer, which Ryan lost to twice in District 5-4A play. In the regular season finale, Ryan broke Guyer’s streak of consecutive district sweeps, but lost the match in five heated games. Ryan will enter as the decided underdog, but with the way the last match went, the Lady Raiders will be looking to play spoilers to Guyer’s run to state.

Cindy Williams isn’t sure what to expect.

“I don’t know,” she said. “It depends on if my kids show up to play. They want a shot at them again. It’s going to depend on the level of our play. It’ll be exciting because we have another shot at them, and it’s going to be real important.”

JEFF ANDREWS can be reached at 940-566-6973. His e-mail address is jandrews@dentonrc.com .