DONNA — Each time Edcouch-Elsa faced adversity in the second and third set Tuesday, the Yellow Jackets refocused their energy to produce points. The formula worked as E-E won a three-match affair on the road against Donna High in District 32-5A action.
The Jackets recorded a 25-15, 25-22, 25-21 sweep for their 15th straight win. They improved to 31-7 overall and 10-0 in district. Donna lost its second match in a row and slipped to 19-18 and 5-5.
Veronica Elizondo led the Jackets with 11 kills. She added nine digs. Endiya Devoe enjoyed seven kills and Sarah Flores had six kills plus nine digs. Meagan Acevedo had 14 assists and 11 digs for E-E.
“My team is real versatile, so they know their own strengths and weaknesses and knew what they needed to do to come into this game to win it,” E-E head coach Gloria Treviño said.
The Yellow Jackets led 10-7 in the second set when the Donna went on a 9-3 run to grab a 16-13 lead. Treviño called timeout.
“I always have to remind them, momentum,” Treviño said. “Momentum of the game is what keeps you going.”
Middle blocker Bryanna De La Peña (eight digs, four blocks) believed it helped.
“She was telling us to not give up and she was motivating us to keep trying,” De La Peña said.
E-E scored six straight points behind the service of Flores to take a 19-16 lead. Donna led again at 20-19 before the Jackets scored six of the next eight points to take the second set.
Clarissa Garcia led the Donna with seven kills. Teammate Ruby Villalobos produced 16 assists while Ashley Rodriguez (22 digs) and Ivette Valladares (17 digs) anchored the defense.
“Defensively, our back row did pretty good,” Donna head coach Cynthia Viesca said. “Our libero (Rodriguez) did a real good job there.”
In the third set, E-E jumped to a 5-0 lead and never trailed but Donna did climb to within one point (19-18) of evening the score off a Brianna Caldwell kill.
Again, the Jackets refocused and finished the game with a 6-3 run.
“We reminded them that we can play at this level,” Viesca said. “They’re (E-E) very competitive so we kind of came out flat but we kind of talked to the girls, got them going a little bit, so we were able to step up. I was hoping we could win a set or two.”
E-E pulled a season sweep, having bested Donna in three sets Sept. 21 in Elsa.
Donna will visit Brownsville Pace on Saturday, while the Yellow Jackets play host to Mercedes.