By ROY HESS | Staff Writer
Winning the St. Joseph Academy Volleyball Tournament is getting to be a healthy habit for the Jubilee Brownsville Lady Titans.
Jubilee captured the tournament championship for the second straight year with Saturday’s 25-16, 25-22 victory in the title match over the host Lady Bloodhounds.
It was also the second consecutive weekend for the Lady Titans to win a tournament. They were champions of the Hebbronville Tournament last weekend.
Also, Jubilee’s Valentina Tijerina, a junior outside hitter, was named tournament MVP for the second straight weekend.
The was all smiles after Saturday’s championship win. She was a leader in kills for her team.
“We practice a lot, so this feels very good,” Tijerina said. “We were intelligent when we played, and that was the difference. It was a key factor. Winning this tournament makes us confident.
“We’re showing that kids should practice a lot and follow their dreams,” Tijerina added.
Jubilee improved to 12-3 on the season. They next open District 32-4A play at home against Brownsville IDEA Frontier on Friday.
Rebecca Perez is in her first year as the Lady Titans’ coach. She knows she has a strong group of players.
“We came out of a (tournament) win last weekend in Hebbronville, so winning two tournaments in a row out of our three tournaments feels really good going into our district opener,” Perez said. “Our attitude was really well today and our team was communicating very well. We’ve been playing a lot of volleyball the past few weeks, but our girls had a late start (for our matches) today, and that helped.
“We had very few mistakes and the girls worked well as a team today, so credit goes to them,” Perez added. “We’re going straight into district now, so this tournament win is good to carry us in.”
The score was close at 13-11, 14-12 and 15-13 in favor of Jubilee in the opening game. The Lady Titans soon pulled away and led 20-13 thanks in part to back-to-back aces by Fernanda Bannak. Tijerina added an ace to make it 23-14 before teammate Daniella Bannak won the first set 25-16 for Jubilee on a tip.
The Lady Bloodhounds showed more life during the second game. They took a three-point lead, 16-13, on a kill by Mildred Verlage before the Lady Titans battled back to tie the score at 17. From there, Jubilee went ahead for good and won the second set 25-22 to take the match on a tip by Alondra Garcia. Her winning-point came one point after a kill by SJA’s Ally Stachowiak had pulled the Lady Bloodhounds to within 24-22.
“I don’t think we played well,” SJA coach Dolores Olguin-Trevino said. “There were a few moments in the second set when we looked really good, but overall, we didn’t play to our potential. Our passing was bad and our serving was really bad. We had too many missed serves, and that made a big difference for us.
“Jubilee just played a lot more consistently than we did,” Olguin-Trevino added. “We got third place last year (in the first year of the tournament), and we got second place this year. Let’s set what we can do next year.
“I think the tournament went well. I believe the teams that came competed well. We were second, so we can’t feel all that good about ourselves because you always want to finish at the top. I think if I can get my players to really focus on their serving and focus on receiving services, we’re going to be fine.”
The Lady Bloodhounds finished the day with an 8-4 record. They next play host to Santa Maria at 7 p.m. Tuesday for a non-district match.
Earlier in the day, Jubilee defeated Pace 25-13, 22-25, 16-14 in the semifinals, while SJA downed Lyford 25-17, 25-16 in the other semifinal.
Pace won the third-place match with a 25-18, 25-14 victory against Lyford.
San Isidro captured the consolation championship with a 25-20, 25-21 win against Santa Rosa.
“We tried a new rotation in this tournament, and I think it will help us as we go into District (32-5A starting Sept. 14),” Pace coach Pamela McCumber said. “The girls did well with our new ideas and improvements, and they adjusted just fine.”