BY NATE KOTISSO | THE MONITOR
ROMA — McAllen Memorial’s moment of the night came in the third game. The Mustangs had won the first two and owned a 19-10 lead in game three when sophomore Sydney Marburger offered up a serve. The ball was falling fast but managed to get just enough airtime to bounce on top the net and gently fall over for an ace to give the Mustangs a 10-point lead. A lead that would hold until the very end.
This was the kind of Tuesday night it was for Memorial, which swept Laredo Alexander 26-24, 25-22, 25-15 in a Class 6A regional quarterfinal match in Roma.
“Honestly, those are the best type of serves,” Memorial senior right-side hitter Lexi Kruse said. “They’re great, because an opponent can’t do anything about them. It’s amazing to see that happen.”
“When Sydney got that ace, I went to my bench and told that that one gave me goosebumps, and I showed them my wrist,” Memorial coach Lorena Lopez said. “It’s because these girls worked so hard, and I tell them to trust in your skills and your abilities. Serving was a huge part of our game tonight. We tried to keep them off balance.”
As tight as the first two games were, Lopez didn’t want her team to lose focus going into the third game.
“We had the momentum going into the third game,” Lopez said. “In the previous round, we had dropped our third set (versus PSJA Memorial), so that was something that we talked about. We can’t let teams back in it and needed to learn to finish while we’re ahead. I thought the girls did a great job of doing that by making some adjustments.”
As teams go deeper into the playoffs, three-game sweeps are fewer and farther between.
“We came out here expecting this to be a five-set match,” junior outside hitter Jocelynn Everage said. “For it to go only three games, it helped us to push through as a family.”
The win over the Bulldogs (30-13) gives the Mustangs (31-8) their third Sweet 16 appearance in a row, which will have extra meaning with McAllen Rowe as the regional site.
“Going to regionals three years in a row speaks volumes about the team, because it’s been a different team every year,” Lopez said. “Every year, I get a different group of kids, and every year they play hard and for each other, so I can’t say enough about them.”
Memorial will take on San Antonio O’Connor, which defeated San Antonio Churchill in five games on Tuesday. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday at McAllen Rowe.
In 2015, Everage, then a freshman, was a part of the Memorial team that faced San Antonio O’Connor in the Sweet 16.
“We lost to them by three points in the fifth set,” Everage said. “We thought we had it, but it slipped through our fingertips. But we want to make new memories this time around.”