By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
LOS FRESNOS — One down, two to go for the Los Fresnos Lady Falcons.
The Lady Falcons are in the midst of an important three-match stretch. They’re going against the top teams close to them in the District 32-6A volleyball standings.
Saturday marked the first of those three matches, and it went well for the Los Fresnos girls at home as they remained unbeaten in 32-6A with a 25-9, 25-11, 25-13 triumph over Rivera.
The Lady Falcons (28-8, 5-0 district), ranked No. 2 in the Rio Grande Valley, next play at No. 6 Brownsville Veterans Memorial (22-10, 5-0) on Tuesday and then play host to No. 9 Hanna (20-11, 4-1) on Saturday. Even with Saturday’s loss, Rivera (16-17, 3-2) remains among the top four teams in the 32-6A standings.
Although it was close early in each game, the Lady Falcons never really appeared to be threatened by the Lady Raiders during Saturday’s contest.
“We need to take care of business every match,” Los Fresnos coach Becky Woods said. “This is our crucial district stretch right here. There are two matches to go for us before the end of the first round, and they’re against Veterans and Hanna. We’ve definitely got to come out and take care of business.
“That’s why I let my starters stay in there and keep playing today,” Woods added. “We’ve got to be ready Tuesday and then again on Saturday. The more hits they can get, the better off we’re going to be.”
The Lady Falcons thrived behind their height advantage at the net and their steady play in the back row.
Joseline Caraveo led the way for Los Fresnos with 10 kills. She also had four blocks. Jackie Kingsbury and Sam Ibarra added eight and seven kills, respectively. Also, Ibarra had six blocks and Kingsbury had five blocks along with six assists and six digs. Also for Los Fresnos, Miranda Gonzales recorded 25 assists and Isis Delgado had 11 digs.
For the Lady Raiders, Michelle Morales finished with nine kills, and Jenny Cardenas had 10 digs. Also for Rivera, Kourtney Shears contributed six assists and four digs.
Rivera coach Elizabeth Avelar-Guerra said Los Fresnos poses a difficult enough matchup for any team, and not playing up to par against the Lady Falcons on Saturday really made things tough.
“Los Fresnos played really well, and our passing was off,” Avelar-Guerra said. “I don’t know why. It was just one of those days. We were trying to run plays around them, but when you’re having trouble passing, you can’t run the plays. When we made the pass, the play worked. We just didn’t have enough passes go to where we needed them to be.
“Yes, Los Fresnos is a good team,” she added. “They’re big, they can hit and they’re powerful. Our girls did OK, but they didn’t play as well as they should have played. If you don’t make a good pass, it’s hard to get a set and a good hit, and that was our problem today. We’ve got to keep working at it and we’ll get better.”
It figures to be another challenging match for the Lady Raiders on Tuesday as they play at Hanna.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess.