ROY HESS | Staff Writer
A surprise awaited the Brownsville Veterans Memorial volleyball team and its fans Tuesday in the Class 5A bi-district playoffs.
Brownsville Veterans, only last week, beat state-ranked Edcouch-Elsa twice to capture a District 32-5A co-championship and the district’s No. 1 seeding in the postseason.
After those wins against E-E, expectations for the Lady Chargers were running high for the playoffs, especially since their bi-district match Tuesday was at home against PSJA Southwest, the No. 4 playoff seed from District 31-5A.
But sometimes things don’t always turn out as planned when athletic events are involved.
The Lady Javelinas (22-16) proved that beyond doubt as they came into Tuesday’s match showing a lot of confidence and played consistently enough to upset the Lady Chargers (30-10) in straight sets 25-18, 25-17, 26-24.
“It’s the playoffs, and I think my girls were ready for this match,” PSJA Southwest coach Jaclyn Olvera said. “That’s what happens when you’re ready to play and you play together as a team.”
The Lady Chargers, their coaches and the Brownsville Veterans fans were disconsolate following the setback.
“Unfortunately, some of my top players were not ‘on’ for this match,” Lady Chargers coach Elizabeth Mares said. “This was a match where (our) inconsistency played a big role. Southwest played very consistently. They were picking everything up, and we weren’t. That was basically what happened in this match.
“We had too many hitting errors, too many passing errors and too many serving errors,” Mares added. “Southwest just played a better game and more consistently than we did.”
The stats for the Lady Chargers weren’t all that great, Mares said. Hannah Edelstein led the team with seven kills. Teammate Galilea Martinez had six kills and five blocks, and Alex Parchmont added 22 digs.
The Lady Javelinas, sparked by the blocking of senior middle hitter Karen Prado, build leads of 5-1, 15-8, 20-10 and 23-13 before winning the opening game 25-18 when the Lady Chargers hit the ball out of bounds.
From the first game on, Prado’s blocks seemed to alter the hitting strategy of the Lady Chargers.
The second game went much the same. The Lady Javelinas led by scores of 10-3, 19-11, 20-12 and 23-17 before a serving ace by PSJA Southwest’s Angela Clerch won the second set 25-17.
Brownsville Veterans jumped out to a 12-5 advantage during the third game thanks to a block by Monica Garcia. Still, it couldn’t hold the lead.
After ties at 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21 and 24, the Lady Javelinas pulled ahead to win the third set and take the match.
A PSJA Southwest hit went off a Brownsville Veterans player and carried out to make it 25-24 for the Lady Javelinas. A kill by Kassy Bucio then gave the Lady Javelinas the third game 26-24.
Prado finished with five blocks, 13 digs, three aces and two kills. Also for the Lady Javelinas, Bucio had 11 kills, nine digs and one ace; Clerch had nine kills, 16 digs, and five assists; Blanca Mendoza had 20 digs; and Jackie Soto had 16 assists.