DAVE FAVILA | Staff Writer
SAN BENITO — On Tuesday evening, the San Benito Lady Greyhounds and Brownsville Veterans Lady Chargers faced off in a District 32-6A match.
The Lady Chargers eventually won in straight games (30-28, 25-15, 25-21) and were indeed the better team. Led by Sarah Sandoval and Megan Sanchez, who had 12 and 10 kills, respectively, Veterans was simply too much for San Benito to handle.
However, the Lady ’Hounds (1-3) gave it everything they had and were by no means a “losing” squad.
“I’m proud of the way the girls played,” said San Benito head coach Ruby Medina. “They did a good job and never gave up. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t turn the corner.”
San Benito was led by Monica Garcia, who had 12 kills and seven blocks, Crystal Ibarra, who had four kills and three blocks, and Clarissa Gomez, who finished with six kills and seven assists.
Game 1 pretty much set the tone for the match as both teams battled back and forth, feeling each other out like prizefighters in a title bout.
The Lady ’Hounds took a quick 5-2 lead to start things off and watched as the Lady Chargers battled back to tie things up and take a 7-5 advantage.
Then San Benito fought back again and took a 10-7 lead only to see Vets storm back and pull ahead 12-10.
The chess match continued until the Lady Chargers served for match point at 24-23. But San Benito refused to die, tied the match and forced match point at 25-24.
Just like San Benito, Veterans refused to roll over and each squad continued to battle until everything was even at 28-28. That’s when Vets finally found enough to win the next two points and pick up the Game 1 win at 30-28.
“I really thought they wanted it more after that first game, said Lady Chargers head coach Lisa Mares about San Benito. “I know we won, but they (San Benito) played very well and we were fortunate to get out of that first game on top.”
In Game 2, the Lady Chargers raced out to an 8-2 lead and never looked back as they won the set by 10 points. Still, the Lady ’Hounds battled and didn’t go down without a fight.
That fight continued to show in Game 3 as San Benito contested everything Vets threw at them, including some pounding spikes by Sandoval and Sanchez.
However, the Lady Chargers adjusted and began to use finesse shots that found open holes in San Benito’s defense. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked.
“We had to switch things up because they did a good job of picking up our shots,” Mares said. “It worked out, but we could have done better.”