There’s nothing like playing at home for the first time of the season and winning handily.
The Brownsville Veterans Memorial volleyball team experienced that feeling Tuesday by sweeping past visiting San Benito 25-11, 25-23, 25-15 in a non-district match.
The two teams each went to the postseason a year ago and would appear to be solid contenders for the playoffs again in their respective districts this season.
Still, the Lady Chargers were the ones maintaining their momentum throughout all three games Tuesday to hand the Lady Greyhounds a rare loss so far on the season.
The excitement of coming out here in front of our fans helped us a lot,” Lady Chargers coach Lisa Mares said. “I’ve told our seniors to cherish every match, every game and every point, so I think the excitement surrounding this being our first time at home (this season) had a lot to do with it.”
The Lady Chargers were just a little more consistent in their play overall, particularly on offense. Apart from the second game, when the Lady Chargers were down 20-16 at one point and successfully rallied to win 25-23, they never gave the visitors more than just one chance to prevail in any game.
San Benito coach Rudy Medina said it wasn’t a very good showing by her team against Brownsville Veterans.
My girls didn’t perform like they should have tonight,” Medina said. “I’m pretty disappointed, but sometimes it happens. They just have to learn from it, and hopefully it works out for the best.
I have to give Veterans credit for being a good team, but we just didn’t perform, and that’s what hurt us tonight,” she added.
The Lady Chargers jumped out to an 11-4 advantage on the way to taking the first game 25-11.
The score was tied six times in the second game, the second-to-the-last time of which was 13-13, before the Lady Greyhounds surged ahead and led by their biggest margin, 20-16, when a block by the Lady Chargers carried out of bounds.
But Brownsville Veterans fought back to deadlock the tally for the final time at 23-23 and went up 24-23 on an ace by Kassy Jimenez. The Lady Greyhounds then hit the ceiling with a high volley on the next point and lost control, giving the Game Two win to Brownsville Veterans 25-23.
Down the stretch in the third and final game, San Benito came within 16-13 of the lead, but that was as close as the Lady Greyhounds got as Brownsville Veterans prevailed 25-15 to sweep the match.
Leaders in statistics for the Lady Chargers, who next are at a Laredo tournament beginning Friday, were Cassie Valdez with 13 digs, 10 kills and 17 assists; Bridgette Himes with nine kills, eight digs and 13 assists; Cynthia Garcia with eight kills, eight digs and three aces; Kassy Jimenez with 29 digs and three aces; and Rebecca Caedenas with five kills.
For the Lady Greyhounds, who next play in the Sharyland Tournament starting Thursday, the stat leaders were Crystal Ibarra with 11 kills, Kayleen Reyes with five kills and Sarah Garcia with 25 digs.