MISSION — Midway through the mutual season-opener between volleyball titans McAllen Memorial and Mission Veterans, a battle ensued between the teams’ middle hitters and blockers.

Memorial came out on top in those series. It was a telltale sign of the remainder of the day as the Mustangs claimed a 25-22, 27-29, 25-20, 25-19 victory over Mission Veterans on Tuesday at Mission Veterans High School.

Junior Joselyn Fernandez and senior Demy Banks tallied 15 and 12 kills, respectively. Banks added three service aces, two solo blocks and three block assists to lead the Mustangs.

Senior Kassy Lerma put together a dominant performance for the Patriots with 27 kills, 14 blocks and 23 digs. Freshman Rylie Barnett added 10 kills and five blocks.

Memorial’s Ashley Doffing earned her first win as a varsity head coach and said despite losing some big hitters to graduation and their long-time head coach Lorena Lopez, who took a position as assistant athletic director for the McAllen school district, she knew her team was ready for the big early season matchup between arguably two of the best programs in the Valley over the past five years.

“I’m sure they sensed that was happening there,” Doffing said about the battle in the middle during the third set. “Both of my middles played last year. Jo Jo (Fernandez) is just a junior and Demi just steps up and lead.

“They walked on the court ready to play and I knew what to expect from them. I knew they were good and they left no doubt today.”

“The big thing about the middle, it’s really a power play,” Banks said. “When something like that gets going and you are so competitive with each other and you win that, it boosts morale and gets you going for the next points.

“Kassy (Lerma) is amazing in the middle and to win something like that was really important.”

There were 23 ties in the first two sets, which took 1 hour, 11 minutes to play. Memorial libero Cori Talamantez was defiant in the back row, running and diving to save several points for the Mustangs off powerful kill attempts from Lerma, Barnett and senior Karina Salinas. Likewise, Veterans libero Bella Dominguez saved many points for the Patriots, but the offensive firepower favored the Mustangs, as did the defense.

“Memorial is not really known for being a defensive team,” Doffing said. “Usually it’s the big girls who take care of business in the front row, but our defense can move and they did today.”

After Veterans dropped the third set 25-20, Memorial jumped out to an 11-3 lead and extended it to 16-5 following a Banks block. Fernandez said that it was critical for her team to keep the pressure on in that fourth set.

“We can’t let up because we know they have some great hitters and can score some points and make a run at us,” Fernandez said. “In the middle, I knew we had to get a lot of touches on their attempts to slow the ball down and help our defense, so we could give them better opportunities to pass the ball. We didn’t want to let the score get into our heads because it could bring us down and they are a strong team.”

[email protected]

MISSION — The Mission Veterans volleyball team is ready for the season — it’s always ready.

In fact, the team’s motto is, “We don’t get ready, we stay ready.”

It’s an appropriate motto, considering the losses to graduation they had this past year have many people in the volleyball stratosphere wondering how they can remain — or even come close —to what they’ve done in recent years. Jackie Howell, Katie Gerlach and Valerie de le Fuente led the Patriots to four straight undefeated district titles and to a ranking as high as No. 4 in the state’s Class 5A poll. Each player has surpassed either more than either 1,000 assists or 1,000 kills.

“Everybody’s thinking we won’t have anything like we had,” Veterans head coach Diana Lerma said. “Our mentality, though, is to break records and do better than last year and that’s hard, especially when you’ve had perfection (in district) for four straight years. But, there’s always somewhere you can get better.”

Seniors Ronnie Cantu, Bella Dominguez and Kassandra Lerma have already targeted keeping the undefeated district streak alive and making a deeper run into the playoffs as goals for this season.

“Nobody works harder than we do,” Lerma said. “Those three girls are in the same situation as Jackie and the other girls were in and they have big expectations. They are keeping that mentality going.”

As always, the Patriots have a schedule that ranks among one of the toughest in the area. They open the season at home Tuesday with defending District 30-6A champions McAllen Memorial, which also went undefeated in district last season and was ranked by the Texas Girls Coaches Association in the state in Class 6A and is a perennial power.

“We love playing Memorial,” Lerma said. “I need to play the best so we can prepare for things like the Adidas John Turner Tournament — when we get there it’s like being in the Valley of the Giants.

“But nobody has told me or us that we can’t jump.”

Veterans went 5-3 last year in the tournament and Lerma said those losses came against teams that are regular state contenders and even though they lost those matches, they were more than just competitive.

“Next year I’m losing eight seniors, so I’m sure people will think we have nothing again the following year,” Lerma said. “But we always have something. We’ve trained these girls to believe and follow the process since they were young. They know the tradition here and they work to keep it going.”

Tryouts and practices for high schools began Thursday, and on Saturday teams will be all over the Valley, scrimmaging and preparing for their opening day. Most teams have regular-season games or tournaments either Tuesday or later in the week. The largest of those tournaments locally begin Thursday with the 14th annual Poundfest Tournament in McAllen.

Twenty four teams are scheduled to participate in the three-day tournament with pool play beginning at 9 a.m. Thursday and Friday. Games will be played at McAllen High, McAllen Memorial and McAllen Rowe. The following teams will be playing: Brownsville Hanna, Brownsville Pace, Brownsville Porter, Brownsville Rivera, Brownsville Veterans, Edinburg Economedes, Edinburg North, Edinburg Vela, Harlingen High, La Feria, Laredo Cigarroa, Los Fresnos, McAllen High, McAllen High JV, McAllen Memorial, McAllen Memorial JV, McAllen Rowe, Port Isabel, PSJA High, PSJA Memorial, PSJA North, Sharyland High, Weslaco High and Weslaco East.

[email protected]

The weight on Tyler Bailey’s shoulders no longer crushes the 6-foot-5, 260-pound recent graduate from Edinburg Vela.

Signing days have a tendency to lighten the load.

Texas Christian University will probably start adding weight back to that frame — but not on the shoulders — now that the former SaberCats star offensive lineman has signed his National Letter of Intent to play for the Horned Frogs.

“I think I matured pretty quickly through this recruiting process,” said Bailey, who had offers from Missouri, Oregon, Texas Tech and USC, among others. “I had to.”

Bailey and his high school coach, John Campbell, agreed that Bailey started realizing his potential a little late compared to the normal route football players take, especially those who end up at a major program. It ended up, however, being just at the right time as colleges also found him late and came running.

“It’s a neat thing with him being a little bit of the late bloomer,” Campbell said. “He was playing his best football at the tail end of the year and there was a lot of recruiting happening. Between his size, his athleticism and playing really well, it presented some opportunities that looks like the entire country found out about.”

As a sophomore, Bailey, an offensive lineman, weighed 310 pounds. He worked hard to get himself lean, and as the realization grew that he might be able to continue his playing career in college, he started “keeping my head down and just working harder.”

“For me, it was always just a game of fun,” he said. “But after I received that first recruiting call (from LSU), I started taking things a whole lot more seriously. Before, it was a dream but not a reality. I had to step up the pace and get on pace with what’s going on.”

Campbell said he and Bailey had a conversation about what his signing means to more than just Edinburg Vela. Major Division I football signings haven’t happened very often in the Rio Grande Valley.

“I told him that this isn’t a regular occurrence down here,” Campbell said. “There will be a lot of eyes on him because he’ll be representing an area and not just necessarily a school like from the big cities.”

Bailey said after he tweeted that he had signed with TCU, his phone “went crazy.”

“I couldn’t use it for two hours,” he added. “There was a lot of love from TCU fans. I know I’m bringing awareness to the Valley and there are others like (McAllen Memorial’s Campbell) Speights and with (Mission Veterans Landry) Gilpin winning Dave Campbell’s Player of the Year (award) — that’s huge. The Valley is getting more recognition and that’s great.”

Bailey said he received 11 major offers, and the first two schools were LSU and Missouri. He toured all the Big 12 schools, but when he visited TCU, he said everything seemed to be what he wanted — from the coaches and players to the size of school had to offer. The business school — especially in accounting, the area which he wants to focus — also caught his attention.

“Their staff and facilities were absolutely amazing. The academics are top notch and they do everything they can for student athletes,” Bailey said. “I walked into the business school and it was fantastic and then thy said they were building a new one — apparently it was outdated to them.”

Bailey has plenty of room to grow and, in fact, said one of his favorite things to do is get with other offensive linemen from Vela, go out and “hit the buffets — offensive linemen love to go out to eat,” he said. But he also admitted he’s trying to get to a weight where he feels most comfortable and then expects TCU to get him where they want him to be.

In reality, they already have them where they want him to be — as a Horned Frog.