EDCOUCH-ELSA — The Edcouch-Elsa Yellowjackets picked up a win on the school’s brand-new gym floor Tuesday night and celebrated 1,000 kills for senior Vida Ybarra.
It was a 25-23, 25-18, 25-19 victory for E-E over the Harlingen South Hawks in a District 32-5A meeting, moving the Yellowjackets to 3-1 in district play.
“They were pretty excited to celebrate my best hitter,” Edcouch-Elsa head coach Gloria Trevino said. Ybarra “is ranked 10th on MaxPreps(.com) in Texas. I know she did it about two weeks ago, but they were looking forward to celebrating it. What better way than to celebrate in our new gym.”
The Yellowjackets did not want to leave practice yesterday; it was the first day the gym was ready to be used, Trevino said.
The Yellowjackets held off the Hawks during the third set after opening up a 20-6 lead. Kills by Ella Ramirez from the middle put the Hawks back into the set. Harlingen South also got points from Malloree Mireles in the set and throughout the match.
Poor serves did the Hawks in when they started to rally. Edcouch-Elsa scored match point on a bad serve by Harlingen South.
The loss drops Harlingen South to 0-4 in district play. There are 14 matches left in district.
“I think we did not execute a lot of things,” South head coach Doryann Perez said. “We are still working on things. We are still trying to work on that mental toughness.”
Edcouch-Elsa won the second set on a poor serve. Sophomore Destiny Mireles picked up a couple of kills in the set and finished with six on the night. Freshman Lylah Gonzalez provided 27 assists.
The most competitive set was the first one. Harlingen South took a 20-19 lead, but Edcouch-Elsa buckled down. Ybarra finished the Hawks off in the first with a kill to win 25-23. Ybarra finished with 17 kills and now has 325 on the season.
“It feels good. I am really excited about the 1,000,” Ybarra said. “Our team did really well today. I am proud of the team.”
Harlingen South faces Donna North at 5 p.m. Saturday at Harlingen South. The Yellowjackets take on Brownsville Porter at noon Saturday at Porter.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated that the gym was new. The floor of the gym is new, the gym not.