Led by Pamela Ellis and Sausha Rae Brown, who had 24 and nine kills, respectively, the Lady Golden Eagles pounded South in straight games, 25-17, 25-21 and 25-19.
With the win, the Lady Eagles improved to 4-1 in District 32-6A (20-11 overall) and kept pace with league leaders Los Fresnos and Brownsville Veterans.
The young Lady Hawks, meanwhile, dropped their third in a row and fell to 1-4 in league play (17-12 overall). The Lady Hawks’ only district win so far has come against Brownsville Lopez.
Hanna came out firing from the get-go and the Lady Hawks simply had no answer.
To their credit, however, the Lady Hawks never gave up and battled back as best they could thanks to solid play by Lexi Kruse, Christina Montez and Allyson Benavides. But it was clear that the Lady Eagles were simply too much as they easily took the opening game 25-17.
In Game 2, the Lady Hawks’ showed their mettle and gave it everything they had, pushing Hanna to the brink. Unfortunately for South, Hanna once again had a little too much fire power on its side and went on to win the game 25-21.
“We knew coming in that they were going to be very tough,” said Hanna head coach Ansgar Hagemann about Harlingen South. “We may have won in a sweep, but it wasn’t easy. South is a very good team, just maybe a little young.”
With a commanding 2-0 lead heading into Game 3, Hanna confidently closed things out with Ellis, once again, coming up big.
Hanna rushed out to a quick 10-5 lead before the Lady Hawks finally found a little consistency and closed the gap to 11-9.
Hanna, however, regained its composure and scored eight straight points to go up 17-11 and then pushed it to 23-15 before the Lady Hawks came battling back.
South got within 23-18 as they tried to stave off elimination and force a Game 4. Unfortunately, it was too little too late as Hanna won the game 25-19 to seal the match.
In addition to Ellis and Brown, the Lady Eagles got contributions from Bianca Olivares and Gianna Muiz, who each finished with 18 assists, as well as Jenny Guerrero and Yelitza Barrientos, who each had 11 digs. Ellis finished with 17 digs.