KEVIN NARRO | Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — On Tuesday, the Harlingen High Lady Cardinals did some growing up.
After a turbulent non-district schedule, the Lady Cards battled through some adversity and gritted out a win over Hanna in five sets, 17-25, 25-17, 25-17, 21-25, 15-7.
Harlingen High’s offense was paced by Juli Bryant and Alexandria Ramirez, who each collected 13 kills. Bryant finished with three blocks and Ramirez had eight blocks. Along with Bryant and Ramirez was senior Elaine Coronado, who ended the night with 12 kills and 29 digs.
With the win, Harlingen High is 2-0 in district, and Hanna drops to 0-2. Tuesday’s win sets up Harlingen High in a good spot early in the district season. The Lady Cardinals next have a date with Los Fresnos, which is also 2-0, and Hanna will look for its first district win of the season against San Benito, which is also 0-2.
“My message to the girls every timeout and before the game was, ‘If we don’t win tonight, (the win over San Benito) last Saturday means nothing,” Harlingen High coach Joslynn Torres said. “The playoffs are on the line every single game, so I kept reminding them we needed to get it done.”
After dropping the first set, the Lady Cardinals regrouped and won the next two sets. During the fourth set, Hanna battled back and forced a fifth set. Camille Atkinson and Odalys Gonzalez fueled the fourth-set win on offense and finished with 16 kills apiece.
During the fifth set, Harlingen High got off to an early 12-7 lead and did not surrender that lead.
“We made some minor adjustments on defense, and it worked,” Hanna coach Ansgar Hagemann said. “Unfortunately for us, the fifth set was a little rough for us. “We started forming the team rather late, we had some injuries and had kids graduate, so this is a new team. But the kids battled tonight, and that is a good thing.”
Coronado felt Tuesday’s win will help set the season in motion and felt there was a little extra energy from her team.
“This is a big step for us, considering what our record was last year,” Coronado said. “Our goal this year was to do better than we did last year, and tonight every girl believed in each other. We could see it in each other’s eyes, and we all have been working hard and setting new goals each day, and we achieved our goal tonight. We knew this was an important game and we knew what was on the line, and we knew Hanna was going to bounce back. We just had to come back stronger.”
Harlingen High’s Callie Cervantes finished with 29 digs, Michelle Zapata had 15 digs and both Elena Aguinaga and Destiny Martinez collected 22 assists.
With Tuesday night’s win, the Lady Cardinals snap a six-game losing streak to Hanna dating to the 2017 season. They were 0-2 this year against Hanna and managed to pick up a win at home.
“We did our homework,” Torres said. “We played Hanna twice already this year. We prepared for tonight, and for us to lose Game 1, I felt they did not beat us, we beat ourselves. We knew what we did wrong, so the next two sets we did what we had to do and we executed.”