By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
ROMA — For the past year, McAllen Rowe players carried with them a “what if” feeling whenever they thought back to last season.
The Lady Warriors were denied an opportunity to advance to the regional semifinals for a second straight year in 2014, when they lost to Los Fresnos in the third round of the playoffs. So when they fell behind in Game 1 on Tuesday, Sophia Luna thought to herself, “Oh my gosh, we have to wake up.”
Over the next three games, the Lady Warriors worked diligently to atone for their early hiccups, beating Laredo United 22-25, 25-23, 25-18, 25-18 at Roma High School to secure their ticket to the Class 6A regional semifinals.
“Honestly, to me, it means the world,” said Luna, a team co-captain. “You know, last year we got this far and we fell short in the fifth game by two points, and that’s something that stays with us. So us four seniors, we knew what it felt like to have it taken from us in the blink of an eye, and we just didn’t want that to happen this year.”
A three-year letterman, Luna was part of the 2013 team that advanced to the fourth round of the postseason, where they eventually lost to San Antonio Churchill. At 8 p.m. Friday, Luna and her teammates will make their return when they take on New Braunfels Canyon at the Alamo Convocation Center in San Antonio.
The trip, they say, carries extra meaning, considering last year’s layoff. The Lady Warriors nearly fell short once again Tuesday, dropping the opening game amid a series of errors. They allowed a 13-10 deficit to stretch to 20-14 simply on their hitting miscues.
After that, however, the Lady Warriors (41-8) rotated their front row, putting Luna and Amanda Martinez as the outside hitters, with Mayda Garcia in the middle, and Rowe went on to win their 13th consecutive match.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, so we had Plan A and Plan B ready and it made the difference,” Rowe coach Magda Canales said.
The Lady Warriors opened a 14-3 lead in Game 3 shortly after the first timeout, with Vanessa Lopez (52 assists) continually finding Amanda Martinez (12 kills) and Garcia (30 kills). Kayla Cruz kept plays alive with her 36 digs, and Ryela Rodriguez (10 kills, 12 blocks) and Luna (5 kills, 1 ace) helped ease some of the scoring load.
The production helped offset a persistent Laredo United team (35-11) whose calculated hits were intended to keep Rowe active on the court and gassed for air.
“At first, they caught us off-guard. We weren’t playing together,” said Lopez, whose team had beaten United three times this season. “But we shook it off, the leaders talked and we just came together as a team.”
From then on, the Lady Warriors put together quick spurts to pull away, turning a 2-2 tie to a 9-3 advantage in Game 4 before closing with a 5-1 sequence.
“We came in and we told each other that we weren’t going to give up,” Garcia said. “We just said we got to keep fighting until the very end. We called a timeout and said we have to be more of a team. Everyone was very individual out on the court. But once we came together, we looked good.”