By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
LOS FRESNOS — The Los Fresnos Lady Falcons became part of history Saturday by delivering career victory No. 600 to volleyball coach Becky Woods.
Playing a District 32-6A home match in which the outcome never seemed to be in doubt, the Lady Falcons (34-8, 11-0 district) efficiently triumphed 25-14, 25-13, 25-14 in barely an hour over Harlingen High (3-8).
It was the 14th straight victory for Los Fresnos. The Lady Falcons are ranked No. 2 in the Rio Grande Valley.
There was a celebratory atmosphere from the very start at the Los Fresnos gym as a large crowd, including a number of Woods’ former players, gathered to witness the veteran coach reach her milestone. Once Los Fresnos won, it was a time for the victory party to begin with obligatory nonstop “selfies.” Earlier, even the school’s mascot, “Falcon,” wanted to have a picture taken with heralded coach.
Signs that read “600” were passed out to the home fans, who stood, raised them and enthusiastically cheered on the match’s final point. Some of the fans, along with Woods, donned T-shirts commemorating her 600th win.
For the record, Woods’ career coaching mark now stands at 600-319 through 31 seasons. That many victories for a high school volleyball coach is believed to be a first in the Valley.
“This is great, just awesome,” said Woods, surrounded by the Los Fresnos fans after the match. “It feels great that our girls are still undefeated (in district).”
Not wanting to give their coach any reason to criticize their play, the Lady Falcons came out on fire and got off to a fast start during each game.
Woods said she really had nothing to complain about to her players during the match as she stood on the sideline and basically watched like everyone else as her team dominated the action and enjoyed one of its best outings of the season.
“The girls were very focused,” Woods said. “We were hitting the ball really well. It was a lot different match than when we played them in Harlingen (during the first round of district Sept. 22 and won 25-22, 27-25, 25-17).”
The Los Fresnos coach was glad she got all of her players from the bench into the match, mostly in the third game, so they could share in achieving the victory as well.
“This is just a great win for the kids, for the school, for the community and Los Fresnos in general,” Woods said.
There were plenty of decisive and thundering kills to wow the fans on this day.
Jackie Kingsbury led the way for the Lady Falcons with 13 of them and had three blocks. Teammates Sam Ibarra and Joseline Caraveo each had 12 kills, and Ibarra also had 12 blocks. Giselle Ibarra added five kills and four digs.
Also for Los Fresnos, libero Isis Delgado had 28 digs, and setter Miranda Gonzales contributed 23 assists with eight digs.
“It’s just so amazing for Coach Woods to have this opportunity,” Sam Ibarra said. “We’re so blessed to have her as our coach. I think we played really well today because we knew it meant so much to our coach. We’re really happy and so proud of her.”
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess.