ALICE — McAllen Memorial’s bid to return to the UIL Sweet 16 fell short Monday, falling to Gregory-Portland 25-20, 25-15, 25-22 in the Class 5A regional quarterfinals at Alice High School.
McAllen Memorial finished its season with a 32-15 record, while Gregory-Portland improved to 40-8.
The Mustangs, the second seed from District 31-5A, fell behind early in the first two sets — 7-4 in the first and 7-1 in the second. Despite playing close to even the rest of the sets, they couldn’t cut much into either lead, looking out of sync both offensively and defensively, especially having to deal with four big hitters from the District 29-5A champion Wildcats.
Also, 5-foot-11 Leah Garcia, the team’s third-leading hitter and a top blocker, did not make the trip with the team and head coach Ashley Doffing left the court with her team without commenting.
Doffing changed the rotation in the third set, trying to and finding a spark and more consistency. Tied at 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, middle hitter Eliane Silberman, who was a force throughout the match, awed the crowd on both sides of the gym with a solo block and a pair of kills as the Mustangs grabbed a 13–10 lead and showed life.
Silberman went to serve and Memorial went on a 6-0 run to extend its lead to 19-12. During the run, Madisyn Sosa collected a kill and Alicia Zieglar crushed a long return from G-P straight down. Two calls during the run were highly contested by Memorial after G-P got the serve back and the Wildcats rallied with an 8-0 run, notching one ace and a big kill from Madison Kilgore.
Memorial, however, rallied back. Sophomore Amare Hernandez had a pair of blistering kills and the Mustangs took a 22-21 lead. G-P, however, finished out the math with a perfectly placed tip, a block and a kill from Sydney Kuzma to advance to the regional semis, also known as the Sweet 16.
Sharyland Pioneer (37-4) will play Flour Bluff (33-5) at 6 p.m. today in Falfurrias. Flour Bluff beat the Diamondbacks two sets to one earlier in the year. Gregory-Portland went 2-0 in district play against Flour Bluff and swept Pioneer in two sets, also earlier in the season, in August. The winner of the Pioneer match will play the winner of the Alamo Heights vs. Dripping Springs contest in the Sweet 16.