By ROY HESS | BROWNSVILLE HERALD
History sometimes repeats itself, and that has become a good thing for Brownsville Veterans Memorial in volleyball.
The Lady Chargers are now outright District 32-5A champions for the second straight season thanks to Tuesday’s 25-21, 22-25, 25-10, 25-16 victory at Porter.
It wasn’t exactly the strongest showing of the season for the Lady Chargers, but they got the job done and walked out of the Porter gym as repeat 32-5A champions, knowing they won’t have to share the title with anyone else.
Brownsville Veterans improved to 12-0 in district with two matches to play. Everyone else in 32-5A has at least three losses. Edcouch-Elsa and Donna High share second place in 32-5A at 9-3.
Porter, no longer in contention for a playoff spot, slipped to 3-9.
Still, the Cowgirls gave Brownsville Veterans quite a battle, particularly in the first two sets.
The Lady Chargers felt celebratory, and maybe even a little relieved, after the win.
They still have a chance to go 14-0 in district for the second consecutive year if they win their last two 32-5A matches.
“It’s a good feeling to work together and win the district championship for the second straight year,” said Brianna Estrada, a senior right-side hitter for the Lady Chargers. “I think we could have done better than we did tonight because we just weren’t all there (playing at the top of our game). But we still came out winning and we’re district champs again, so that’s good.”
There were 12 ties in the opening set, the last one at 21-21, before Brownsville Veterans surged ahead to record the final four points and win 25-21.
“I think if we wouldn’t have let that first set get away from us, maybe we would have gotten more of the momentum (and possibly done better),” Porter coach Ariel Arredondo said. “We were still able to win the second set (though).
“I’ve told my girls that for the rest of the season it’s (all about playing for) pride,” she added. “I’m proud of the way they’re playing hard and not giving up. We’re a young team and our record really doesn’t reflect the (kind of) team that we have considering the way my girls play.”
The second game was tied at 22-22 before Porter scored the last three points of the set to win 25-22 on a serving ace by April Reyes.
The Lady Chargers came back with renewed determination to take the next two games 25-10 and 25-16 in capturing the match.
The good news/bad news scenario that Lady Chargers coach Lisa Mares presented to her team as it huddled after the match involved letting the players know she wasn’t at all satisfied with the way they played while also letting them know they were outright district champions again.
“It just didn’t seem we were ready to play tonight,” Mares said. “It wasn’t a cooperative effort on everybody’s behalf there for awhile. That’s when I started making substitutions and putting people in there that wanted to play.
“(After the match) I told the girls, ‘I’m going to start with the bad (which is we didn’t play all that well),'” Mares added. “Then I said the good (news) was we won district again.
“Really, it was (mostly) good because these girls have worked hard and winning district was their goal. This can be a positive because the girls can see how they need to come together and play in the playoffs if we want to stay around. They know they have to come together as a team in order to be successful.”
Leading the way on the stat sheet for the Lady Chargers against Porter was Cassie Valdez with 10 kills, 17 digs, 15 assists and three aces. Also for Brownsville Veterans, other contributors were Cynthia Garcia (10 kills), Rebecca Cardenas (eight kills, seven blocks, one ace), Frida Rangel (seven kills), Bridget Himes (six kills) and Kasandra Jimenez (34 digs).
Standouts for Porter included Reyes, Azaneth Perez and Micaela Garcia.