Sharyland Pioneer head coach Laura Cavazos didn’t realize she earned her 200th coaching victory with the Diamondbacks this year.

That’s how focused she was on her team, their seasons and their success. The focus paid off as the Diamondbacks compiled a 37-5 record, winning their first district title with a 12-2 mark in 31-5A and advancing to the second round of the Class 5A playoffs.

Playing arguably their toughest schedule since the school first opened in 2014, Cavazos guided the team to their most wins in a single season and fewest losses. At Pioneer, Cavazos has compiled a 214-84 record for a .718 winning percentage and has been named The Monitor’s 2021 All-Area Volleyball Coach of the Year.

Cavazos spent two years as head coach at Sharyland High and moved over to Pioneer after Sharyland ISD split Sharyland High into two schools, adding Pioneer in 2014.

“When I left Shary, it was tough,” said Cavazos, who has also been head coach at Donna for a year. “When they split schools I didn’t know if I wanted to leave, but having an opportunity to open a school and build a program was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”

The Diamondbacks were 28-12 that first year, hit 30 or more wins in 2016 (30-8) and 2019 (32-13), then blew past both with the 37-5 mark this season.

“We had pretty much an unspoken goal, to win district, but it wasn’t anything we had to talk about,” she said. “It started in the offseason, it was there during practice and they did what they needed to do. Many of them had been on the team for four years.”

Players used words like funny, thoughtful, caring and determined when describing their coach.

“She always matched our energy super well,” All-Area Libero Lizzy Fina said. “We could joke around with her, but we also knew when it was time to get serious and down to business.”

Cavazos, who could also be described as intense, said it was important to bring a full package of knowledge, awareness and skills to her team.

“I try to make it fun and make sure they know that I care about them. It’s not just about volleyball, but relationships, too,” she said. “It’s still a game and we are going to learn from the losses and be good. I love my job and what I do. I certainly can be intense but I also have to counter that intensity.

“It’s not about driving them into the wall or beating them down. It’s about a great practice. Enjoy the moment and be grateful.”

She added: “As a player early on, I remember thinking about what my coach was thinking and wanted to be a leader and an extension of that staff for my team. It probably wasn’t my choice, but just in my blood. Even if I picked something else, I would probably be in the gym. I did some camps in college. That’s when I decided, ‘Yeah, this is what I’m going to be doing.’”

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Natalie Reyes wouldn’t mind joining the mariachi group at Sharyland Pioneer.

“I love to sing,” she said before rambling off a line of “Mama” by Siggno. “But I don’t understand Spanish well, and I just don’t have the time.”

What she understands, however, is volleyball. Every aspect of it. The senior setter for the Diamondbacks, as one coach put it, “controls both sides of the court. You can’t fall asleep on her. She’ll make you pay.” That’s something she did well, and often, this season, leading the Diamondbacks to a 37-5 overall record and a 12-2 mark and District 31-5A championship.

She tallied a stunning 1,156 assists this season, surpassed 3,000 career assists and, even with a roster full of hard-hitting and superstar defenders, she was still the one every opposing coach feared and would try to figure ways to get her out of system.

For her performance this season, Reyes has been named The Monitor’s 2021 All-Area Volleyball Player of the Year. She was named Newcomer of the Year in 2018 and Setter of the Year in 2019.

“Sometimes, she would just take over the game, including being offensive this year,” Sharyland Pioneer head coach Laura Cavazos said. “Her serves were very aggressive and she just set the tone for us. Practice, games, it didn’t matter what we were doing. Sometimes, setters have good hands, sometimes they can put up a good, hittable ball and that’s acceptable. But she does everything — defense, serving, blocking and her IQ is just incredibly high.

“I was tough on Nat and I’m thankful to have coached her.”

While Reyes stats were impressive in every category — a team-leading 97 aces, second with 357 digs, 29 total blocks and even 90 kills — it was her knowledge of the game, along with the gifted golden touch that were keys to her incredibly advanced performance this season.

“I really wanted to better my IQ this year, especially with the next level in mind,” Reyes said. “It’s something I needed to improve on and needed to get better at in general. I was able to produce and get better, little by little. I would watch a lot of film, go to UTRGV games or Texas games and watch their mannerisms and decision-making and that helped me be successful in my game.”

Watching Reyes run the show is watching a volleyball maestro at work, making sure the different sections are in sync, producing the best outcome. She uses every set available, pin to pin, but said she especially enjoyed running the C slide with middles Jordan Bravo and Lorelai Hill.

“I loved getting our middles involved and throwing off some blockers on the other side,” Reyes said. “Jordan isn’t a very big celebrator, but this year she would get kills from that and sometimes she would be smiling from ear to ear. That made my year.”

Reyes said the team just “went with the flow,” throughout the year, prepared for when teams tried to take her out of play by sending her the first ball.

“Our libero Lizzy (Fina) and those who played DS (defensive specialist) handled out of system this year and we focused on it a lot,” Reyes said. “This was a fun year. It was fun to continue to better the ball, even if I wasn’t getting my hands on the ball.”

Not getting the ball was rare for Reyes. Early in the season during the Mission Volleyball Tournament she recalls sprinting across the court to track down a ball. After the game, she said, her coach told her that in previous years she wouldn’t have gotten there.

“Yeah, I kept telling her that,” Cavazos said. “She was so fast to the ball this year. I told her that before she leaves, she needs to tell me what she did. Was there a drill? It was awesome to watch. She could get to anything. Somehow she would get a touch on it.”

That was just one example of where her hustle, quickness and IQ all came into play. It was one of many. One video on a social media shows her setting the ball while sitting on the floor. For most, that’s tremendous. For Pioneer, that’s just Nat.

“She was always a good player,” Cavazos said. “This year she was great, in a league of her own.”

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The most difficult thing the Mission Veterans defense faced at times was its own teammate — Rylie Barnett.

“She hits that ball so hard, if someone does get a block, it’s coming back at us even faster,” Veterans head coach Diana Lerma said. “We would practice that. Fortunately, it didn’t happen often. Rylie would hit over, through or around the block.”

Proof of that was Barnett’s 621 kills, 5.6 kills per set and a staggering near-50% (49.6) kill percentage. Because of her explosiveness and performance this season, Barnett has been named The Monitor’s 2021 All-Area Volleyball Hitter of the Year. It is the second straight year the junior bomb dropper has earned the distinction.

This year, however, Barnett was stronger, smarter and learned how to not just overpower everyone. She also perfected her back-row attacks, giving the 31-9 Patriots a more options on offense, even though those options usually ran through the 5-foot-11 hitter.

“She is a beast. There’s no other way to describe her and the things she can do,” Lerma said. “The difference this year was her determination to not just play all the way around but to bring points from the back row and to play middle if we needed her there. It’s not just about playing the position; the game is about points.

The good thing is now if I tell her, ‘I need you at middle,’ she’s become very understanding and she would tell me to put her wherever she’s needed.”

While known for her thunderous attacks that defenders often ducked away from or couldn’t get out of the way in time, Barnett became more adept and dangerous at looking for openings, oftentimes dropping the ball right behind the blocker from above.

“I think I had a lot more fun on the court this year,” said Barnett, who needs less than 500 kills to reach 2,000 for her career. “I didn’t let pressure or anybody from the outside influence or affect how I am — it was just all me zoned into what I was doing. It helped me perform the way I wanted to and was more aggressive.

“I played smarter and I definitely had to step up playing in a six rotation.”

She added 62 aces on the year, unleashing her fury from beyond the back line no different than at the net.

“She hits everything hard, whether she places it or is serving it,” Lerma said. “She brought it to faces, chests, shoulders. It just depended on how fast they would get out of the way. She understands the game much more now and she wasn’t to go to the next level after high school.”

The Patriots bring back their top four hitters next season, including Carla Guerrero, who was second on the team with 301 kills. Lerma said when opponents see Barnett, they know what they’re in for.

“She’s gonna be the only one to stop herself,” Lerma said. “This year maybe the biggest difference was how she led the team. It’s what a leader does from inside the court. Don’t just get upset.”

“She grew up a lot in the past year. Sure, the crowd loves the boom slamma jamma and she definitely did that, but it’s all about getting points and, as a leader, getting your teammates back in the game if they did something wrong. She learned the game more. She learned the numbers. She is blossoming.”

Her goals are set on next year’s team doing deeper than previous Patriots squads with that “Core-4” returning.

“We’re focused on winning district again, but getting farther into the playoffs,” she said. “Next year is our last go-around.”

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Good liberos make improbable saves from the biggest hits.

Great ones, however, do it without interrupting the fluidity of the rally for their team. It’s just another in a long list of dives, digs and slides — along with bumps and bruises.

That’s what Sharyland Pioneer’s Lizzy Fina accomplished as the top libero on arguably the fastest and most fluid offense in the Rio Grande Valley. Because of her performance this season, Fina has been named The Monitor’s 2021 All-Area Volleyball Libero of the Year.

She started out as on offense, as a setter and right side hitter on the JV Dark team before varsity injuries lifted her to varsity.

“Coach told me, ‘We’re going to need you,’” Fina said. “That’s when I started to love defense. I would get a lot of adrenaline from those 5-foot-11 hitters taking big swings at me.”

Pioneer head coach Laura Cavazos said Fina’s transition to libero made her a stronger all-round player.

“She already had a high volleyball IQ, and she knew how to play every position,” Cavazos said. “I tried to watch her as much as possible but we were always preparing. But looking back, she had a great year. She put in a lot of work and she was so dedicate to getting better and making herself seen and known. She was consistent, a motivator and got her hands on everything.”

Fina’s numbers paints a picture of a phenomenal season with the District 31-5A champion Diamondbacks, who compiled a 37-5 overall record and 12-2 in the district. Fina tallied 597 digs, 583 serve receptions, a 95.7% success rate on those receptions, 229 points and 54 aces. She also had five kills.

But it was the intangibles that separated her. Often times she would race to a ball and somehow save it while the opposing team was celebrating what they thought was a point. Even if she couldn’t reach one, which was rare, she would dive, elongate and stretch her arm out, hoping that even a nail might keep the ball from hitting the ground.

“She knew the different hitters, who we were up against and was familiar with them. She would read them and put herself in the best position,” Cavazos said. “She controlled the back row and had no hesitation. She made the others on defense feel very confident and they would feed off her.”

Her ability also to seamlessly transition her team from defense to offense and get the ball to standout setter Natalie Reyes was true poetry.

“When I would come out of the game sometime it was amazing to see our level of play this year,” Fina said. “Most of the time we kept our composure and were able to get three hits every single time. We worked on out of system plays when teams would try to get Natalie out of system and we had amazing connections. We never had to worry though if our passes weren’t perfect. She would still set it perfectly and that made my job easier.”

When the first ball went to Reyes, Fina was ready to play setter, figuring out which blockers and hitters were paired to send the ball to the best option.

“We kept saying every year that this was our year but it never happened,” Fina said. “This year, however, we had no drama and we had so much trust in each other. There were moments when something could have sparked drama, but it didn’t.

“It was an amazing year.”

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MISSION — Caroline Cuellar saw a petite girl playing volleyball during the summer between that athlete’s seventh and eighth grade school year.

“The first time I saw her, I said, ‘Oh yeah, this girl is going to be on varsity (as a freshman),’” Cuellar said. “She didn’t have any idea.”

Cuellar’s prognostication was right on. Now, a sophomore, Victoria Gonzalez directed an offense that led PSJA High to a District 31-6A co-district championship. For her outstanding season, Gonzalez has been named The Monitor’s 2021 All-Area Volleyball Setter of the Year.

“She has such soft hands, even back then,” Cuellar said. “This year, she found the hot hand. She recognized the situations we were in and set people up to get out of a certain rotation.”

What set the District 31-6A Setter of the Year apart from the rest was her ability to know where each of her hitters liked the ball. That was no easy task considering how many hitters the Bears regularly used— nine. Each one of those hitters, like on any team, has their preferences, but Gonzalez connected with all of them.

In district alone, she compiled 281 assists, 42 aces, 131 digs and even 23 kills.

Most of her success came from her velvety touch and communicating with her hitters.

“The ones that wouldn’t tell me if they liked the set or not, I would get on them,” she said. “I would tell them that they would have to let me know so I could put them in the best positions possible.”

“She’s a very, very quiet girl but her leadership shows on the court,” Cuellar said. “She was always all over the court and she would make something happen in tough situations, whether it was a bump set or whatever she needed to do.

“She knew where the hitters liked the ball and they knew she would put it right there for them. She did that on her own time, at home, just constantly working.”

Gonzalez said she wasn’t sure how this year would turn out. The Bears had a preseason schedule loaded with state-ranked teams both in non-district matches and tournaments.

The early results weren’t exactly the best. Those results, however, created one of the strongest PSJA High teams in recent years, Cuellar focusing as much on the mental aspect as the physical aspect, all while also relying on Gonzalez to lead an offense that was becoming more versatile every week.

“Coach just kept telling us to fight through it,” Gonzalez said. “We were progressing and we could see it. It was frustrating at times early when we were playing those high-level teams, but we were getting better and that was encouraging.

“Then we played our first district game and kicked butt — that taught us how important it was to keep pushing forward. It motivated us.”

Cuellar said when the team would go back to watch film they couldn’t help but notice Gonzalez was always where the ball was, good pass or not.

“She was under some pressure early and a couple times I saw it, but she was always trying to make the best out of every play,” Cuellar said. “I never had to tell her about when to dump the ball, either. She knew when to do it and why. She would just take control.

“When I first saw her, she was just this little quiet girl. I know she didn’t know at the time, but I knew. She was going to be big for us.”

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San Isidro head volleyball coach Elva Smith’s Tigers have never been scouted as much as this year.

That’s what happens when wins come in bunches.

San Isidro (34-4) advanced to the UIL Class 1A Regional Semifinals, also known as the Sweet 16, on Tuesday after a thrilling 23-25, 23-25, 25-18, 26-24, 15-12 comeback over D’Hanis. The Tigers will play at 1 p.m. Friday against Fayetteville (42-2).

“This is a big deal for us,” said Smith, in her eighth year at the Tigers’ helm. “I’m honored to have done this with these girls.”

Senior Mia Alvarado paced the comeback charge with career-high 30 kills and five blocks. Teammate Alexandra Garcia added 14 kills and setter Nicole Delgado tallied 26 assists.

“When the girls have fun, they can take over,” Smith said. “Mia and Nicole have this work ethic and special communication on the court. Nicole has been our quarterback all season and she and Mia don’t even have to talk to each other, they know what they’re going to do.”

Delgado missed a couple games due to illness during a magnificent season. Without her directing traffic, the Tigers dropped both matches, each to Laredo St. Augstine. Their other two losses came to Brownsville Pace and Brownsville St. Joseph.

Smith and the Tigers don’t shy away from the Goliaths, beating 4A schools Hidalgo, La Feria and Port Isabel. They also hung with Class 5A Pace, falling 25-15, 25-21. The Vikings finished 17-9 during the year and advanced to the Class 5A playoffs.

The Tigers have won 19 straight matches.

“I knew if we could keep up with Port Isabel and Pace, and then after we played in the St. Augustine tournament, I knew nothing could stop us,” Smith said. “I wanted to get in with PSJA or teams like Vela or Sharyland but I’m thinking they look at us and think, ‘You’re just a 1A school.’ But we feel that we are at that level.”

Alvarado injured her hitting side shoulder during the first set but said the adrenaline “and the Ibuprofen” helped her deal with the pain. She did not practice Wednesday and was on her way to have the shoulder checked on early Thursday.

The senior star hitter said she recognized as early as the first day of practice that this could be a special year.

“I could see that there was a great bond already, even with the freshmen coming in,” she said.

She added the freshman group realized in the match against D’Hanis what that match meant, especially for the seniors.

“They had never been in the playoffs before so there were a lot of nerves, even for all of us,” she said. “But that match really opened a lot of eyes, that we could come back and that we never give up.”

Alvarado leads the team with 398 kills this season, about 3.8 kills per set. Juniors Garcia and Roma Elizondo contribute 1.8 and 1.1 kills per set, respectively. Delgado quarterbacks the offense and has tallied 5.3 assists per set for the season.

Delgado reiterated that the connection she and Alvarado has is a special one. The fact that they’ve known each other and been friends since pre-kindergarten is probably a major factor.

“We live in a small community. We go to a small school and we’ve been playing sports together and have been classmates together all our lives,” said Delgado, while sitting next to Alvarado on the 350-plus mile ride to Brenham. “We know it’s important for the community and for school and for us, being our senior year. We’ve worked hard for it since our freshman year, and as seniors we want to take is as far as we can.”

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EDINBURG – NCAA Division I football is coming to the Rio Grande Valley.

UTRGV officials announced Thursday that a referendum that the UTRGV student body voted on from Monday through Wednesday passed. The referendum will increase the athletic fee for students by $11.25 per credit hour, up to 12 hours. It also allows “for the expansion or addition of a spirit program on both campuses, a Division I women’s swimming and diving program and marching bands on both campuses.”

The increased student fees and the revenue it brings will be used to cover a large portion of the expenses. Other areas such as ticket sales, merchandise, sponsorships and donors are expected to cover the remainder of the costs.

The increase will start in Fall 2022 and affect only incoming students and students outside of UTRGV’s Guarantees Tuition ad Fees program, the University wrote in a news release.

The football team will reportedly play at H-E-B Park in Edinburg and Sams Memorial Stadium in Brownsville to start off.

Based on this year’s start date for college football, the projected first kickoff for UTRGV football will be in 1,388 days, on or around Aug. 30, 2025.

University officials will have media availability this afternoon to discuss the referendum.

Check back throughout the day for more information on this story.

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Mallory Henderson has spent her high school career blazing up and down the soccer field for the McAllen High girls’ soccer team.

Henderson, a senior, signed her national letter of intent Tuesday in front of family and friends at the McHi gym to continue her playing and academic careers for Division I Texas State University in San Marcos.

“This whole journey has been something I’ve been dreaming of my whole life,” Henderson said. “I started getting serious about the recruiting process my sophomore year. I talked with a lot of coaches, but Texas State felt like home.”

She joins her sister, Westyn, and brother Gunnar, as a DI athlete. Westyn plays soccer for Texas A&M, while Gunnar plays football for TCU.

“They have been my role model since growing up, and seeing them go through the process made it easier on me and my family,” Henderson said. “I knew what to do and got to where I wanted to be.

“I’m thankful I wasn’t the oldest and didn’t have to do it alone.”

McAllen High head coach Patrick Arney said while the end result looks simple, it takes an amazingly determined effort to play at the college level, especially DI.

“Today is just a good day. These are special days we can celebrate,” Arney said. “Her dad said it best when he said this just doesn’t happen. You have to work hard and have dedication and make sacrifices — not only the athletes, but the entire family.

“You put in all that work just for the chance of getting something good. Nobody says you’re going to get a scholarship. She has worked extremely hard.”

Henderson is in her fourth year on the varsity soccer and track teams. She was also a Texas High School Coaches Association second-team all-state forward for the 2020-21 season. She was the District 31-5A offensive MVP and tallied 28 goals and 12 assists last season. She is president of the McHi Fellowship of Christian Athletes and a leader in her church youth group.

“She is such a versatile player. She’s played every position almost except for goalie and does an outstanding job everywhere,” Arney said. “She’s got speed, endurance, smarts and she’s just a coach’s dream. She understands the concept of team.”

Henderson said now that this goal has been checked off, she can focus on the upcoming season.

“It’s definitely a sense of relief,” said Henderson, who wants to go into nursing or physical therapy. “I’m set on going to Texas State and there’s no turning back. Now I’m going to prepare myself to get in the best shape mentally and physically for the season.”

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FALFURRIAS — Corpus Christi Flour Bluff won a first set that was as on-the-edge-of-of-your-seat intense en route to a 30-28, 25-16, 17-25, 25-19 victory over Sharyland Pioneer on Tuesday in the Class 5A Region IV quarterfinal matchup at Falfurrias Junior High.

It was just a little too much height and power as the Hornets advance to the regional semifinals Friday against the winner of Alamo Heights and Dripping Springs, also played Tuesday, in San Antonio.

Senior Natalie Reyes, unquestionably the top setter across the Rio Grande Valley, ends her career with more than 3,000 sets, running a fluid Pioneer offense, for four years. The Diamondbacks, the District 31-5A champions, lose nine seniors heading into next season.

The Diamondbacks did what they did all season: spread the ball around, play solid defense and let Reyes control the match from pin to pin, keeping Flour Bluff off-balance with a wide variety of attacks and deep balls.

Pioneer led the early portion of the 40-minute set and Katie Salazar, Lorelai Hill, Thalia Ochoa, Mariana Treviño and Jordan Bravo all registered kills as the varied offense was in sync and the Hornets couldn’t get to the blocks quick enough. The teams traded power punches and the defenses dazzled the remainder of the way, neither team being able to pull away. Each team found itself in set-point situations before freshman big-swinging middle Margaret Croft put the set away.

“That was a tough 30,” Pioneer head coach Laura Cavazos said. “Our girls showed a lot of resiliency, and when you’re facing those big hitters, you’ve got to get what you can.”

Pioneer was clearly out of sync in the second set but managed to stay with Flour Bluff until the Hornets rallied off eight straight points to grab a 17-9 lead. Senior Katy Geurin pounded away for three kills during that run and Croft added a block. Geurin and Croft kept coming up with big kills throughout the set en route to the second-set victory.

That’s when Reyes, sitting on her chair in between sets and with her teammates gathered around her, said a few words of inspiration.

“It was in a high tone but it was all words of encouragement,” she said. “We just needed to get back to doing what we do and execute.”

That’s when Pioneer went from near dead to dominant. Cavazos changed the rotation, hoping for better matchups and got what she was looking for.

Hill and Ochoa dominated the third set Ochoa splitting the defense or hitting winners down the line. The highlight, however, came when Hill blocked the 6-foot Croft twice in a three-point stretch as the Diamondbacks closed it out with a 6-0 run.

The teams were tied at 7 in the fourth before Flour Bluff went on a 10-4 run and grab a 17-11 lead, which was too much for Pioneer to overcome, ending their best season in school history. The Diamondbacks finished with a 37-5 record, losing two sets in district, dropping one match to Gregory-Portland and two matches to Flour Bluff, which was in the same district at G-P.

Despite having arguably the strongest district in deep South Texas, District 29-5A’s Flour Bluff and Gregory-Portland — eliminated all four District 31-5A teams. Flour Bluff beat McAllen High and Sharyland Pioneer, while Gregory-Portland knocked off McAllen Rowe and McAllen Memorial.

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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.

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