ROY HESS | Staff Writer
McALLEN — The West team of Class 6A players rallied to prevent East squads from winning all three volleyball matches at Sunday’s high school all-star event at McAllen Memorial.
The all-star competition featuring Rio Grande Valley senior standouts was presented by the Tip of Texas Volleyball Officials Chapter.
Having seen East squads win the sub-Class 5A and the 5A matches, the 6A West All-Stars didn’t want to allow it to become a sweep for the East. They came alive and unleashed their power hitting after dropping the first two games to defeat the East All-Stars 20-25, 22-25, 25-12, 25-13, 15-12.
The 6A West All-Stars were led by players from the McAllen High and McAllen Memorial teams that advanced to last month’s Region IV-6A Tournament. Among them were standout hitters Sydney Pemelton and Julia Monday of McHi plus all-around player and Baylor-bound Taylor Marburger of Memorial.
It’s so much fun (to coach an all-star team with this caliber of players),” said McHi’s Paula Dodge, who directed the 6A West All-Stars along with Memorial’s Lorena Lopez. “These girls have all the skill and talent in the world. They get out there and play hard, so it just makes it a lot of fun.
We started off a little slow,” Dodge added. “Some of them haven’t been playing for a month. We had a couple practices, but we didn’t work them out like we would during the season.”
The 6A East All-Stars were led by a steady back row that included San Benito’s Larisa Garcia and Rivera’s Lilian Vera, and some thunderous kills by UT-Rio Grande Valley commit Jackie Kingsbury of Los Fresnos.
It’s always fun coaching a team like this where they’re all hard workers and they all like to play hard,” said Rivera’s Elizabeth Avelar-Guerra, who coached the 6A East team along with husband Richard Guerra, also a coach at Rivera. “They had no fear and they gave it their all. Each one is a leader for their team, so they all wanted to do their best. It’s awesome to coach these girls. They’re so talented.
“Our girls did real well,” Avelar-Guerra added. “They had some good blocks and good pick-ups (against the West’s big hitters). Sometimes, the West girls would hit it where we weren’t and there wasn’t much we could do about it other than just keeping working hard. Our girls did an awesome job. They never gave up.”
The East won the sub-5A match 25-15, 13-25, 25-15, 25-18. And then another East team swept the 5A match 25-18, 25-19, 25-18. There was a fourth “courtesy game” to cap the 5A match. It was also won by the East 15-11.