He’s not too excited about the evolving trend, but Hanna volleyball coach Ansgar Hagemann has seen his team get off to a slow start in many of its matches so far this season.
The good thing for the Lady Golden Eagles is they seem to many times finish stronger than they start and win.
That was the case again Tuesday at Pace as Hanna rallied to capture a non-district match against the Lady Vikings 20-25, 25-19, 25-18, 25-20.
“I think I counted five starters that we had out for this match,” Hagemann said. “That’s a lot of starters to be missing for a volleyball team. But these girls hustled and played hard. I told them I was proud of them because our substitutions were limited (due to the injured players who were out).
“They always start slow, but then they build up their chemistry for a win,” the Hanna coach added. “They did that in (last weekend’s) McAllen Tournament. We’d always lose the first game, and sometimes it led to a disaster, and then other times they’d find their chemistry and come back for the win. It was nice to come back and win tonight.”
Tuesday’s opening game was tied four times before the Lady Vikings went on a 6-0 run to go ahead 13-7 and take the lead for good en route to winning the first set 25-20.
It continued to look promising for the Lady Vikings in the second game as they surged to advantages of 7-0 and 9-1 before the Lady Eagles came alive and fought back to even the score at 13, 14 and then 15.
From there, Hanna outpointed the home team 10-4 to the take the second game 25-19 and begin to gain control of the match.
Hanna never trailed in the third game as the Lady Eagles held leads of 5-0, 11-6 and 24-15 before winning 25-18 for a 2-1 advantage in the match.
The score was tied at 10 and then 11 in the fourth game, and the Lady Vikings even led 11-10 at one point. However, Hanna went ahead for good at 12-11 when Pace hit the ball out of bounds.
Pace pulled to within one point twice down the stretch at 17-16 and 18-17 in the final game, but could never come any closer, and the Lady Eagles took the match when a tip by Hanna’s Rebekah Schlatter made the score 25-20 in the fourth set.
Pace coach Gavin Rudder was disappointed with the result.
“We’ve got to work on the basic fundamentals of everything — passing, setting, serve receiving and communication,” he said. “We’ve got to dig a little deeper and improve our effort and our fight.
“I think once we improve our effort, we’re going to be a totally different team,” he added. “Our whole pre-season schedule is mostly against teams that are in a higher (6A) class than we are (5A). I’d rather play up and go against the tougher schools. I’m not OK with a loss like this one, but I’m OK with playing the bigger schools.”
For Hanna on the stat sheet, the leaders were Ariana Arceneaux (six kills, four blocks), Odalys Gonzalez (six kills, three blocks), Schlatter (four kills, three digs, one block) and Isabella Tatum (seven digs).
For Pace, the stat leaders were Amanda Gomez (19 assists, eight digs, three aces), Rosa Salinas (nine kills, three blocks), Stephanie Saenz (eight kills, six digs) Abbi Rodriguez (20 digs, three aces) and Jade Rodriguez (14 digs, seven kills).
Hanna next plays in the Volley at the Beach Tournament beginning Thursday at Port Isabel, while Pace is entered in a tournament at Mission starting on Friday.