By ROY HESS | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
The inaugural Saint Joseph Academy varsity volleyball tournament is in the books and the Jubilee Brownsville Lady Titans are the champions.
Jubilee improved its record to 9-0 on the season by defeating Santa Maria 25-23, 25-17 in Saturday’s title match on the SJA campus.
The 11-team tournament was played over two days at two gyms at SJA.
In the final against Santa Maria, the Lady Titans fell behind by scores of 8-3, 10-4, 13-8 and 20-16 in the first game before battling back to tie the match at 21-21 and 23-23. From there, Jubilee took its first lead, 24-23, when a Santa Maria serve went out. The Lady Titans won the first game 25-23 when a volley by Jubilee went off a Santa Maria player and carried out of bounds.
Boosted by their opening-game win, the Lady Titans never trailed in the second set. They led by as many as 11 points, 15-4, before the Lady Cougars tried to rally. Jubilee took the second game 25-17 and captured the match with a serving ace on the final point.
The Lady Titans, led by tournament MVP Fernanda Bannok, a sophomore setter, won two games Friday and two more on Saturday to gain the championship.
“ It’s a very emotional experience (to win this tournament),” Bannock said. “To me, it just feels great.
“ We played together as a team and we communicated with each other,” she added. “This (championship) win will definitely help us with our season (ahead). We just have to work harder.”
Jubilee received a strong test in Saturday morning’s semifinals before prevailing over SJA 23-25, 25-22, 15-12.
“ We’re finally coming together,” Jubilee coach Lester Shears said. “We’ve had trouble so far this season scheduling matches, so we’re a little behind other teams. But I see our girls coming together quicker now.
“ We graduated a good player last year, but our returnees are clicking,” Shears added. “We still have some work to do, but I believe these girls are going to get there. They’re looking better.”
When asked about playing in the inaugural SJA tournament, the Lady Titans coach said, “It’s a good tournament and I like it. We’ll be back next year.”
SJA bounced back from its narrow loss to Jubilee in the semifinals to win the third-place match 25-21, 25-10 against San Isidro.
Santa Maria reached the title match by defeating San Isidro 25-20, 13-25, 15-11 in the other semifinal.
The consolation championship went to the Port Isabel Lady Tarpons, who defeated San Perlita 25-23, 25-18.
Besides Bannok as the tournament MVP, other players selected to the all-tournament team were SJA’s Ally Stachowiak, Santa Maria’s Aisha Gonzalez, Port Isabel’s Samantha Chapa, San Perlita’s Karime Rojas and San Isidro’s Nicole Delgado.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess