By ROY HESS
Staff Writer
It was a close, intense volleyball playoff match between familiar foes.
Rivera and Edinburg North played each other for the fourth time this season Monday during the Class 6A bi-district playoffs.
The other three matchups happened more than one month ago — twice during tournament action and once during a non-district contest at Rivera. Edinburg North won both tournament matches before Rivera picked up a win.
Monday’s postseason encounter was the most important match of all of them. The Lady Raiders prevailed 27-25, 22-25, 25-14, 25-20 on their home court to advance to the area round of the playoffs later this week.
“What stood out to me tonight was our team and how we clicked so well together,” said Rivera’s Kourtney Shears, a senior outside hitter/setter. “Some of the plays we made were incredible. We (initially) didn’t expect to make them, but we were there for each other (and kept the ball alive). The outcome was great.”
Added teammate Kenya Ibarra, a freshman middle blocker, “All of us working together just made us come out with the win in the end. Our coach (Elizabeth Avelar-Guerra) helped us every step of the way. It worked out in the end.”
Ibarra led the Lady Raiders with 23 kills. She also had nine digs. Shears contributed 17 kills, 28 digs and 20 assists. Also for Rivera, Madelaine Blanco had 42 digs and Nissa Zuniga had seven kills.
“I think this was the most complete match we’ve played this season,” Shears said. “It gives us a lot of momentum for the next round of the playoffs.”
Rivera (24-14) tied for third place in District 32-6A. Edinburg North (26-17) was the District 31-6A tri-champion.
Avelar-Guerra was in total agreement with her players’ assessment of the togetherness the Lady Raiders displayed against the Lady Cougars.
“The girls played together as a team, they were talking, they were communicating, they were hitting well and their defense was outstanding,” Avelar-Guerra said. “They just came together tonight. They all played well.
“Every one of our girls stepped it up,” she added. “They were playing their hearts out. It was a wonderful match. (Still) it was very stressful to me (as the coach), but I’m sure it was a great match for the fans.”
The opening game went back and forth with 16 ties, the last deadlock coming at 25.
An almost 10-minute stoppage and discussion between the officials and coaches over an apparent Rivera tip late during the first set was eventually ruled instead as a point for Edinburg North. It made the score 23-20 for the Lady Cougars instead of 22-21. But the call didn’t stop the Lady Raiders from rallying to win as they battled to ties at 24 and at 25.
From there, Edinburg North hit the ball out on back-to-back points to allow Rivera to win the opening game 27-25.
“Everybody (for both teams) came to play, and everybody left everything on the floor,” Lady Cougars coach Raul McCallum said. “(Senior Natalie Rodriguez has tears in her eyes and) doesn’t want it to end (just like our other players).
“It was just one of those things,” McCallum added. “Rivera put (Ibarra) on the outside, and we couldn’t stop her. She was in the middle before (and we did a better job of stopping her).”
The second set was practically as close as the first one, with nine ties. The Lady Cougars broke out of a deadlock at 22 to take the set 25-22 on a tip by Jevannah Burrow, a ball hit out by Rivera and a block made by the Lady Raiders that carried out.
The Lady Raiders went up 8-0 to start the third game and never trailed. Their biggest lead in the set of 12 points, 24-12, came on an Edinburg North hit that went out. A backline kill by Rivera made it 25-14 to give the Lady Raiders a 2-1 edge in games for the match.
After four ties during the fourth game, the last of which came at 8, Ibarra put Rivera ahead to stay, 9-8, with a kill just inside the back line.
Rivera then was up by as many as nine points, 24-15, before the Lady Cougars tried to rally and closed the gap to 24-20. But a hit too long by Edinburg North provided the Lady Raiders with the final point they needed to take the fourth game and the match 25-20.
Rodriguez (20 kills, 40 digs) was a leading hitter for the Lady Cougars and teammate Evana Ramos, a sophomore libero, was a non-stop hustler (82 digs, seven kills, three aces) who made plays for her team all over the court.