GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
McAllen Memorial coach Lorena Lopez credits senior Draik Banks’ success to a solid grasp of fundamentals, things like hand and foot placement that allow her to be in the best position on every point.
Banks has been a force this season for the Lady Mustangs, leading the team in blocks (47) and hitting percentage (.301).
“She’s probably the most technically sound middle I’ve seen in the Valley,” Lopez said. “She really has studied the position, and the better you are at the technical stuff, the better you’ll be overall.”
Now a senior, Banks has also become louder at the net, guiding younger teammates and asking for the ball on the attack.
“In the past, she hasn’t been very vocal,” Lopez said. “But I think this year, she’s been more vocal with her team, getting them to follow her and really trying to push them to be better.”
Banks and the rest of the Lady Mustangs are gearing up for the playoffs, which begin next week with a match against Del Rio. Lopez is trying to keep everything the same as it was during the regular season, even scheduling a warm-up match against Edinburg High on Saturday to keep her players in the regular game-week rhythm.
The only shift in practices has been more focus on individual skill and added conditioning punishments for failing to hit certain goals — an effort to simulate the type of pressure the team will face in a playoff environment.
Lopez is expecting a stiff test against Del Rio, which pushed Memorial in a preseason tournament. After splitting the first two games, the Lady Mustangs eked out a 17-15 win in the third.
“We know that we’re evenly matched with them,” Lopez said. “They have some big middles and some strong outsides. I can pretty much say we’re the same type of team.”
BUILDING FORWARD
Even after moving to 7-0 last week to clinch the first district title in school history, Monte Alto hadn’t hit its season-long goal. From Day 1, the 2015 campaign was about going undefeated.
The Blue Devils hit that mark on Tuesday, taking down Lyford to cap a multi-year turnaround project and keep momentum going as the team heads into the postseason.
“They were just hungry for it. They worked a little bit harder than last season,” coach Kerry Villarreal said. “They just wanted to come out and go undefeated. That was our goal from the beginning of the season.”
When Villarreal took hold of the program three years ago, Monte Alto was coming off a winless inaugural season. Using the lessons she learned as an assistant at Valley View under current Donna High coach Cindy Viesca, Villarreal put her players through a much tougher conditioning regimen and focused on their skill development.
“I asked them, ‘Why do you work so hard for me?’” Villarreal said. “And they said, ‘Because you actually care.’”
The Blue Devils’ top three contributors are seniors Evelin Alonso, Liza Gomez and Brenna Rosa.
All three have stuck with the program through its four-year turnaround, improving their district record from winless in 2012, to 4-4 in 2013, to 6-2 last season and now this year’s 8-0.
Gomez has learned to bounce back after errors, Rosa has developed into a leader, and Alonso has become a more confident player.
“I think that’s the big thing for our team overall,” Villarreal said, “actually believing they can do it.”
UP IN THE AIR
McAllen High and Mission High are still waiting to see who they will face in the bi-district round. The No. 1 and No. 2 seed in District 29-6A will be determined at 5 p.m. today, when Laredo United and Laredo Alexander meet to break a first-place tie.
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