ELSA — Endiya Devoe and Vida Ybarra play opposites in Edcouch-Elsa’s volleyball rotation.
That means one of the two lethal hitters is always in the front row.
That was the only thing “opposite” for the two Yellow Jackets players, who similarly attacked at every opportunity and lifted Edcouch-Elsa to a 25-21, 25-18, 25-19 sweep over Donna High in a District 32-5A battle of previous unbeatens Tuesday. The win lifts E-E to 3-0 in its zone, while Donna High falls to 2-1.
At the end of the regular season, the top team in the district’s West Zone (Donna High, Edcouch-Elsa, Mercedes, Weslaco East) will play the top zone in the East Zone (Brownsville Lopez, Brownsville Pace, Brownsville Porter, Brownsville Veterans), where the winner will take the top seed for the playoffs and the loser will claim the second seed.
Devoe, a senior, led E-E with 19 kills, while Ybarra added 17 kills, 14 assists and 11 digs. But it didn’t start that way. Donna led 18-14 in the first set, using a variety of off-tempo style pushes, bumps and tips to keep E-E off balance, chasing balls to the corners and unable to gain momentum with their attacking play.
The Jackets went on an 11-3 run the remainder of the first set and Ybarra found her groove in a 6-0 mini-run in which she blasted three straight kills, including two down the line, then attacked with an aggressive bump, also finding a wide open space down the line and suddenly 20-18 lead. She added another kill, while Madi Treviño also got into the act with a kill and a block and E-E claimed the first set.
“When I started getting those hits I felt I was in the game. I felt amazing. I was so shocked, even at myself,” Ybarra said. “At first I was hitting crosscourt, but Coach kept saying ‘go line’ and it was open, so I kept going line.”
Devoe got into the action in the second set, drilling back-to-back balls that split the back row and turned an 8-8 tie into a 10-8 lead. The Yellow Jackets started to slowly pull away before pulling ahead 16-11 behind a Sara Sumbillo ace and two serve reception errors.
“I thought we attacked more. It was good to see,” E-E head coach Gloria Treviño said. “The girls are coming around. They (Donna) really tried to tip against us and push balls to the corners, so we adjusted and pushed the girls back a little and it worked. We are able to attack the way we want to.”
When Donna High wasn’t on the attack or pushing the ball to the corners looking for openings, it found some effective tips to the middle of the court. Libero Ari Cavazos, however, adjusted and led the defensive effort to close that middle gap for most of the match, giving Donna High few openings to shoot for. Cavazos sprawled on several occasions, completely stretched out to keep rallies alive for the Jackets and ended with a match high 24 digs.
Donna High’s Brianna Caldwell led the Bravettes with nine kills, while Ruby Villalobos had six kills, nine assists and eight digs.