The Lady Falcons needed to win in order to advance in the state playoffs while the Panthers needed a win to clinch a district title.
Mission accomplished for both squads thanks to big performances from Peyton Sales and Brian Guerra, respectively.
Sales, a senior, helped the Lady Falcons in playoff wins over Weslaco last Tuesday and McAllen Memorial on Thursday. The victories moved the Lady Falcons into the regional quarterfinals where they’ll face McAllen Rowe tonight at Harlingen High School South.
Against the Lady Panthers, Sales led the team with 26 assists as the Lady Falcons cruised to a 25-13, 15-16, 15-14 win.
And against the Lady Mustangs on Thursday, she finished with 20 assists and also was key in the fourth and deciding game as Los Fresnos won the match 28-30, 25-21, 25-20, 25-17.
“She trained all year long,” Los Fresnos head volleyball coach Becky Woods said about Sales in a recent interview with the Brownsville Herald.
“She came out this year and not only could she set, she can hit, she can serve really well, she can block. She can do any skill there is in volleyball at this point. She worked her butt off over the summer.”
Should the Lady Falcons get past Rowe tonight, they’ll head to the Region IV-6A tournament in San Antonio where they’ll face either San Antonio Johnson or SA Churchill.
Meanwhile, the Weslaco Panthers headed into their regular-season finale on Friday against intracity rival Weslaco East with the District 32-6A title on the line.
East, led by star running back and past VMS Athlete of the Week Lupe Moron, was the odds-on favorite to take contest.
However, thanks to a powerful running attack led by Guerra, the Panthers won the game 28-21 to clinch the league crown outright. Weslaco (6-4, 5-1) hardly looked like a district title contender early on as the Panthers started the season at 1-4.
However, thanks to guys like Guerra, the Panthers redeemed themselves big time.
Guerra finished the game with 160 yards on 10 carries for two second-half touchdowns on runs of 73 and 57 yards.
“We kind of thought that was our X factor,” Panthers head coach Tony Villarreal said after the game in an interview with the Monitor. “We faked a lot of stuff to (leading rusher) Eric (Gonzalez), and Brian Guerra did his magic.”
The win set up a Class 6A Division I bi-district playoff game against Harlingen on Friday night at Boggus Stadium in Harlingen.