Unfortunately, they left the Lady Bobcats gym as deflated as a week-old balloon after IDEA rallied to win the match 13-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-16.
“We felt good after the first game, but they (IDEA) seemed to improve as the match went on while we just couldn’t see things through,” said Rio Hondo head coach Karen Ramirez.
Indeed, the Lady Blazers did seem to come to life after dropping the first game.
In the first game, the Lady Blazers came out flat and didn’t do a good job of getting to the ball, which allowed Rio Hondo to capitalize on kill shots by Atheny Orozco, and aces by Lori Jaramillo and Elaine Rocha.
However, in the second game, the Lady Blazers did a much better job of digging out shots hit to the backcourt and they eventually found their rhythm. Although it took a while.
Game 2 was a seesaw battle with both teams exchanging leads and struggling to find their offense as most points came off unforced errors or service faults.
With the game tied at 16-16, the Lady Cats took a one-point lead only to watch it slip away as Victoria Rodriguez had back-to-back aces to put the Lady Blazers up 19-16 and eventually get the 25-22 win and tie the match at 1-1.
In Game 3, the two teams battled early on but with the game tied at 8-8, the Lady Blazers found their footing and behind some powerful serving by Esmer Rodriguez rattled off eight straight points to go up 16-8 and eventually take the game 25-18.
Momentum stayed on IDEA’s side in Game 4 as the Lady Blazers jumped out to a 15-5 lead and never looked back in the 25-16 win.
“In that last game we tried to do some different things and give them some different looks, but it just didn’t work out,” said Ramirez.
The Lady Bobcats will now get ready for their District 32-4A opener against Hidalgo on Saturday afternoon.
“We would have liked to go into district play on a high note, but we’ll be ready come Saturday,” Ramirez said. “We showed today that we still have a lot of work to do, but we still have a lot of season left and we’ll be OK.”