BY NATE KOTISSO | THE MONITOR
ALICE — When the McAllen Rowe Warriors learned they were scheduled to start the playoffs against South San Antonio at Alice High’s gymnasium on Oct. 31, coach Magda Canales said they were groans amongst some of her players. Last season, Rowe lost to Laredo United in the bi-district round of the playoffs on the same floor in Alice.
“They said, ‘Ugh, there’s something about that gym,’” Canales said. “We said, ‘No, this is going to be our gym this year.’”
With a three-game sweep versus South San Antonio and a 25-17, 26-24, 20-25, 25-14 triumph over Laredo United on Monday night, the Warriors appear to have successfully exorcised their Alice demons.
“We knew we couldn’t underestimate them (Laredo United),” Rowe junior outside hitter Jackelyn Alanis said. “They came in confident that they were going to beat us, but we came out and showed them that we were the better team. We might have had a few difficulties there, but we’re not going to let whatever happened to us last year break us down.”
“I don’t think there were any nerves. We were hungry coming into this game and hopefully move onto the next round,” Rowe senior setter Adrianna Martinez said. “Knowing what we already needed to do in this game, that helped out everybody know that our confidence and teamwork were going to be there to win this game.”
After a breezy eight-point win in game one, Rowe ran into some difficulties in games two and three.
The Warriors (35-7) were down at three critical junctures — 20-16, 23-22 and 24-23. But Rowe was relentless to the end, taking a two games to none advantage. The emotional drain of game two allowed Laredo United (31-7) to cut the Rowe lead in half in game three.
“As long as the scoreboard isn’t to 25, the game isn’t over,” Martinez said. “We had to push no matter what. When we work together, we’re unstoppable, so we had to get back to what made us unstoppable in the first place.”
Rowe will move on to the Sweet 16 and take on the winner of the regional quarterfinal match between San Antonio Clark and San Antonio Reagan, which will take place tonight in San Antonio.
In a fortuitous twist, the Warriors will host the Class 6A Region IV semifinal and final matches on Friday and Saturday in McAllen. Rowe’s next match will be 8 p.m. Friday.
“We didn’t want to finish our season on the road,” Canales said. “We wanted to play at home for our seniors.”
“It’s our house, so we’re not going to give up on it easily,” Alanis said.