KATY—This is the time of the year Katy High has been longing for ever since last year's run to the regional finals.

The Tigers were hungry all offseason, preseason, and regular season to get back to the playoffs. They had raised the program's bar last year by going the furthest the program had been since 1993. Eager to prove it was not an aberration, they went through the motions of the regular season, sometimes methodically and most times exceptionally, with a much bigger picture in mind.