BY GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
CORPUS CHRISTI — A tumultuous season for the Mission Veterans volleyball team came to a fittingly volatile end.
The Lady Patriots stormed back from two games down to level their match against Victoria West, but ultimately fell 25-23, 25-14, 14-25, 19-25, 15-12 in a Class 5A regional quarterfinal Tuesday at Corpus Christi Ray.
Longtime head coach Diana Lerma watched from the first row of the home stands after being twice suspended during the year and ultimately reassigned on Oct. 15.
“This season has been one of the worst season I’ve ever had, with our head coach being gone and everything,” junior D.D. Ibarra said. “I’m just glad we stuck it out and we came this far.”
Interim coach Vivian Ray was again leading the team on Tuesday, as she has since Lerma’s reassignment.
Although MCISD and school coaches never commented on the reasons for Lerma’s reassignment, some Mission Veterans’ parents complained that she had bullied players and used excessive profanity. Others rallied to support Lerma, saying the offended parents were upset about the distribution of playing time.
Ibarra said the controversy took a toll on the team during the season.
“I think it hurt us very much,” Ibarra said. “From going and playing against the top teams in the state of Texas, to coming over here, we just went down.”
Lerma was in attendance Tuesday to watch her senior daughter Gabby’s final match.
Between Games 4 and 5, the Lady Patriots former coach left her seat and climbed to the top of the bleachers, waving blue pompoms as she led the about 50-member student section in a call-and-response cheer. Once she finished, the students chanted her name.
The cheer came on the heels of Mission Veterans storming back to tie up the match with a dominant performance in Games 3 and 4, one fitting of the No. 5 ranked team in the latest Texas Girls Coaches Association state poll.
“One of our captains, Gabby Lerma, had said if they were going to take it away from us, at least go down swinging,” Ibarra said. “And that’s exactly what we did.”
Although Mission Veterans appeared to have taken control of the match, the teams played to an 8-8 tie to open Game 5. Victoria West won the next two points to take a 10-8 lead, and the teams traded evenly to 13-11. Then, Ray tried to call a timeout when the Lady Patriots had none remaining, resulting in a point being awarded to Victoria West. Two points later, the Lady Warriors finished the match with a kill.
Ray declined comment after the match.
“We didn’t start off with the lead like we should’ve (in Game 5),” Ibarra said. “I think that was the main thing. And we let easy balls drop when they shouldn’t have.”
Losing just one senior from a team that went to the state’s Sweet 16 for the fourth time in program history last season, Mission Veterans entered the year with expectations of advancing at least that far, and potentially to the state tournament.
Instead, the loss ends the career of former All-Valley players Gabby Lerma and Daisy Reyna, plus three other seniors.
Ibarra, another former All-Valley pick, is one of five underclassmen on the roster.
“This sucks, but I have one more year to come,” Ibarra said. “Hopefully, that will be my moment.”