EDINBURG — McAllen High committed 16 service errors Saturday against Edinburg Vela, most of them coming in the first and third sets.
So, late and during one of the most intense and important moments of the match, McHi freshman Katelyn Pritchard served up three of her team-high five aces and the Bulldogs went on 5-0 run. Later, teammate Leah McClenny hit the back line on a serve that Vela watched to tie the match at 13 during the final set, and the Bulldogs claimed a 20-25, 25-21, 21-25, 25-10, 15-13 victory in a key District 31-5A battle.
McHi improves to 5-2 in district while Vela falls to 3-4. Sharyland High leads the mangled district standings at 7-0, followed by McAllen Memorial (6-1). After that, the standings are a mishmash as McAllen High, McAllen Rowe and Sharyland Pioneer are tied at 5-2, followed by Vela, still looking to take down one of the Big Five in front of them to stay in the postseason race.
“We need to continue to have that aggressiveness and need to have that confidence, and now we see what we’re up against in this district,” said Vela head coach Araceli Ortega, whose team was moved to Class 5A — and District 31 — arguably the toughest district in South Texas following the most recent UIL realignment. “We saw we can play with these teams. I think we cut ourselves short a lot of the times because we’re the new team on the block. But we can battle these teams. There’s light at the end of the tunnel and we can win.”
While the Bulldogs had 16 service errors compared to seven for Vela, they also tallied 17 aces. Following Pritchard was Bella Rivera with four aces and four others with two apiece.
“It was just get them over and get them in. There’s a little stress, but in the end you have to keep fighting,” Pritchard said. “I was looking for holes, and would go there and see they would get stressed out or nervous and I’d keep at it.”
There were five lead changes in the final set, which only runs up to 15 points to determine a winner. McHi committed two service errors and trailed 5-4 early before a Shiela Zamora kill put Pritchard up to serve.
“We’re looking to make no more than 2-3 (service errors) and we want to be making it tough for them to pass,” McHi second-year head coach Michael Smith said. “At the end of the day, we can’t make many of those mistakes and give them points either. But we’re bringing it tough and we had a lot of aces today.
“That was such a huge spot for (Pritchard) to come in and be able to convert those serves. She’s a quality player, and it all starts in preparation and she’s a hard worker. We’re able to trust her in that spot, and it’s not a concern for us when she’s in that spot.”
Katherine Williamson paced the McHi offense with 20 kills while Gabby Estringel added 10 and Zamora nine. McHi also had to overcome being blocked 12 times on attack attempts.
“It’s not always about the kill,” Smith said. “We want to do things to limit their ability. Every time you attack, if you’re putting the other team in tough situations then you’re able to keep them from doing the things they do well.”
There’s only two more matches for each team to complete the first round through district. McHi hosts Sharyland High on Tuesday and travels to Valley View on Saturday. Meanwhile, Vela hosts PSJA Memorial and then PSJA Southwest.