BY GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
EDINBURG — As one of four players with varsity experience on the newly formed Sharyland Pioneer Lady Diamondbacks soccer team, Julie Alanis told her teammates what to expect from their first taste of the playoffs.
“It hurts a lot when you lose your last game,” Alanis said. “You’ll regret not running to the ball, not pushing harder. You’ll keep thinking if I had done this, or if I had done this. Just always keep pushing. Think of the big picture and what will come out of it. You’ll be thankful.”
The Lady Diamondbacks took Alanis’ advice on Monday at Cats Stadium, putting away the Edinburg Vela Lady SaberCats 1-0 to earn a trip to the Class 5A regional semifinals.
Despite starting this season from scratch and boasting no varsity experience other than four transfers from Sharyland High, Alanis said Pioneer’s success is not surprising.
“We set ourselves to very high standards,” Alaniz said. “We don’t listen to what other people say. We play off of what we think of ourselves, and we’re very positive.”
Alanis said she felt people “underestimated” Pioneer early in the season, but that the group has developed better chemistry and a tighter bond as the year has gone on.
Alanis and fellow all-district returners Taylor Marquez and Hanna Padilla were critical to that process.
“They’ve been at this, and they’re great leaders,” coach J.J. Lopez said. “They’ve shown the others what it takes as far as work ethic to get to this level.”
Alanis showed it with her play on Monday, too, scoring the lone goal for the Diamondbacks when she one-touched a volley through the hands of Edinburg Vela keeper Mayra Ibarra. After a looping, hopeful shot from well outside the box deflected off the top of the crossbar, Alanis received a pass in the middle of the box and poked it home with 24:51 to play in the first half.
Advancing is hardly new ground for Lopez, who experienced plenty of deep playoff runs in 17 seasons at Sharyland High. He and Alanis advanced to the third round with Sharyland the past two seasons, but 2015 marks the first time any player on the Pioneer roster has reached the regional tournament.
“I just feel very fortunate that we’re able to do it with this group,” Lopez said. “Being a first-year program, it makes it a little bit sweeter.”
Pioneer advances to face defending state champion Austin Vandegrift at 6:30 p.m. on Friday in Corpus Christi.
“We’ll have our work cut out, but at this point, anything can happen,” Lopez said. ”I have faith that the girls are going to get reenergized for the regional tournament. I told them we all should be very appreciative, because not a lot of people can say that they get to go to the regional tournament. We just want to enjoy every moment.”
Monday’s meeting was the third of the season between the two schools, with Pioneer having won the first two tilts by a combined 7-0.
The SaberCats hardly looked the part of a major underdog on Monday, trading evenly with Pioneer on chances and possession for most of the night.
Vela engineered one of the cleanest scoring opportunities of the evening, when Chery Chavez and Lucia Valdez-Orozco executed a give-and-go that left Valdez-Orozco open in the box from about 12 yards out with about 11 minutes to play in the opening half. Pioneer keeper Stephanie Barrientos needed only to reach above her head to make the easy save, sending a groan through the vocal contingent of a few hundred Vela supporters.
“We played them better than the first times,” Vela coach Hugo Leal said. “We improved a lot during the year. … I’m proud of my girls. They tried their best. They played their hearts in the game. We came up short, but we died fighting, so that’s fine.”