By Roy Hess | The Brownsville Herald

The championship semifinals are set in the inaugural Saint Joseph Academy varsity volleyball tournament.

After earning victories during Friday’s opening day of the 11-team event, Saturday’s semifinal matchups have host SJA going against Jubilee Brownsville at 10:15 a.m. and Santa Maria facing San Isidro at 11:30 a.m.

The winners play at 5:45 p.m. Saturday for the tournament championship.

This is the first year the tournament is played. It was supposed to have been played a year ago at this time, but the threat of Hurricane Harvey canceled it.

Dolores Olguin-Trevino, SJA coach and tournament organizer, is glad to see the event finally being played, although she’s a little caught up in the events of the moment. She’s expecting a call at any time about the status of her pregnant daughter who is ready to give birth.

It will be her first grandchild.

“I’ve just been a little stressed getting ready for the tournament and being concerned about my daughter,” Olguin-Trevino said. “If I get that call (during the tournament that she’s giving birth), I’m sorry, I’m out of here. I’m asking her to hold off (on giving birth) until Sunday, but I’m afraid that might not work.”

SJA reached the tournament semifinals with victories Friday against Brownsville First Baptist (25-7, 25-9) and La Villa (25-9, 25-13).

“Our girls are meshing together better,” Olguin-Trevino said. “We’re a young team and the girls are coming together. I’m impressed with where we’re at right now at this point so early in the season.

“We have a ways to go yet, though,” she added. “We don’t start our (TAPPS) district until Sept. 18.”

Jubilee Brownsville was also a winner twice on Friday by defeating Port Isabel (25-20, 25-17) and Juan Diego Academy (25-9, 25-17).

In the other half of the championship bracket, San Isidro reached the semifinals with Friday’s wins against San Juan IDEA (25-5, 25-8) and San Perlita (25-21, 25-18).

Santa Maria advanced to its match in the semifinals against San Isidro by defeating Donna IDEA (25-18, 18-25, 15-11). The Lady Cougars received a bye in the second round and automatically advanced to their semifinal match on Saturday against San Isidro.

All of Saturday’s matches will be played in the gym next to the domed basketball gym on the SJA campus. The other gym site on campus is being used for SAT testing Saturday.

The tournament’s third-place match is scheduled at 3:15 p.m. and the consolation championship will be played at 4:30 p.m.

By Roy Hess | The Brownsville Herald

The Hanna Golden Eagles have plenty of reasons to feel good about themselves and the upcoming football season after Thursday night’s decisive scrimmage victory against the PSJA Memorial Wolverines at Sams Memorial Stadium.

The Eagles outscored the Wolverines 3-1 in touchdowns during the controlled portion of the scrimmage before triumphing 31-3 in three quarters of game-situation action.

Hanna opens the regular season next Thursday at Sams against McAllen Memorial, a team that is being talked about as the preseason No. 1 in the Rio Grande Valley.

The Eagles weren’t thinking too much about McAllen Memorial just yet on Thursday night. They were busy savoring their win against the Wolverines.

One of the Hanna players who made a big contribution to the victory was Miguel Payan, a senior quarterback/receiver/kicker.

Payan caught a pair of 17-yard scoring passes from Victor Campos, threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Josiah Meyers and kicked a 29-yard field goal.

“Our scoring was pretty good tonight,” Payan said. “We can always do better, but we played together and got the win, so it was good.

“Winning our scrimmage with (Brownsville) Veterans last week (14-0) and now getting this win makes us feel stronger,” Payan added. “It makes us feel like we’re ready for a great start to our season. We still need to get better so we can make our season better.”

Hanna running back Cesar Mancias also had a standout game and scored TDs on runs of 20, 12 and 5 yards. Also, Campos, the Eagles’ starting QB, had a pair of TD passes, which were the two 17-yarders going to Payan.

“I’m pleased about coming out of this scrimmage healthy more than anything and us being ready to line up next week against a storied program such as McAllen Memorial,” Hanna coach Mark Guess said. “We still have to look at film, but I think our guys are hungry (to get going).

“Our guys still remember last year’s (34-32) loss to Edinburg Vela in the playoffs that was so close (on a 54-yard field goal with 24 seconds left),” Guess added. “The memory of that loss is what’s been driving them.

“Of course, we have some holes to fill on the offensive side of the ball and a couple more on the defensive side. (But) we’re going to get after it and be ready for next Thursday night in our season opener.”

Mancias scored on runs of 20 and 12 yards before Campos hit Payan with a 17-yard scoring strike in the controlled portion of the scrimmage. PSJA Memorial made in 3-1 in the controlled portion by scoring on a 60-yard pass play on a deep route. The Hanna pass defender fell down on the play.

In game situations, the first touchdown was recorded by Hanna’s Isaac Iracheta, who intercepted a PSJA Memorial pass and returned it 20 yards to the end zone. A 29-yard field goal by Payan, a 5-yard run by Mancias and a 30-yard pass from Payan to Meyers made it 24-0 before the Wolverines recovered a Hanna fumble and eventually scored on a 23-yard field goal to make it 24-3.

The 17-yard TD pass from Campos to Payan early in the final quarter completed the scoring.

By Roy Hess | The Brownsville Herald

Saint Joseph Academy’s inaugural varsity volleyball tournament has been a year in the making.

Originally, the tournament was to have been played last year at this time, but the threat of Hurricane Harvey canceled it.

It doesn’t appear that any bad weather will stop the tournament from happening this time.

The two-day tournament begins at two gyms on the SJA campus at 1 p.m. Friday with 11 teams.

SJA coach Dolores Olguin-Trevino said it’s possible a 12th team could be added since PSJA Memorial dropped out earlier this week.

Along with host SJA, the other 10 tournament teams are Brownsville First Baptist, Port Isabel, Jubilee Brownsville, San Isidro, San Juan IDEA, Santa Maria, Donna IDEA, Juan Diego Academy, La Villa and San Perlita.

The championship match is scheduled at 6 p.m. Saturday.

Asked who she considers the tournament favorite, Olguin-Trevino replied, “I don’t really see anyone as the favorite. I kind of have a feeling it’ll be evenly matched. I’m hoping it’s my team (winning it all). We’ll see.”

The Lady Bloodhounds are, basically, a young team with only two seniors–Juliet Reyes and Arely Fonrouge.

SJA is coming off Tuesday’s 25-15, 25-21, 25-14 non-district victory at home against Donna IDEA.

Ally Stachowiak led the way for the Lady Bloodhounds in the match with 15 kills, eight digs and two blocks. Mildred Verlage added seven kills, 12 digs and one block-stuff while teammate Bekah Rodriguez had 22 assists. Also for SJA, Victoria Gonzalez had five kills and Natalia Montemayor had 12 digs.

LATE DISTRICT START

Most years, district play starts sometime in August for the Rio Grande Valley’s UIL volleyball teams. That’s not the case this season, at least in the Lower Valley.

Because of a reduction from eight to six teams, District 32-6A starts on Sept. 18, which is one of the latest dates for it to begin in recent memory.

With its eight teams, District 32-5A is starting Sept. 8, while District 32-4A, which also has eight teams, begins Sept. 4.

Rivera is the defending champion in 32-6A, while Brownsville Veterans Memorial is the two-time defending champion in 32-5A. La Feria is the defending champion in 32-4A.

ON A ROLL

Jubilee Brownsville will enter the SJA Tournament with a 4-0 record. The Lady Titans are coming off Tuesday’s 25-14, 25-6, 25-15 victory against Edinburg Quest.

Coached by Lester Shears, the Lady Titans went 29-2 last season and advanced to the Texas Charter School Academic & Athletic League state semifinals.

Top players for the Lady Titans this season are Valentina Tijerina, Fernanda Bannock and Elise Forte.

Roy Hess | The Brownsville Herald

SAN BENITO–In a non-district volleyball match that brought out a lot of determination from both teams, the San Benito Lady Greyhounds emerged as the victors.

Tuesday’s back-and-forth contest went five games with the Lady Greyhounds prevailing 13-25, 25-16, 25-18, 16-25, 15-11 by on their home court against the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Lady Chargers.

Both teams went to the playoffs last season and each wants to make it to the postseason again in 2018. San Benito was the third-place team in District 32-6A, while Brownsville Veterans is the two-time District 32-5A champion.

“Veterans is a very good team and we just started very slow against them,” Lady Greyhounds coach Ruby Medina said. “I don’t really know why we were playing sluggish. Our passing game (early) was not to our usual standard.

“But a win is a win no matter how we get it, so I’m just happy that our girls didn’t give up knowing where we were at (so early) in the match,” Medina added. “It was a good win for us to come back like that.”

San Benito was up 2-1 in the match after three games, but the Lady Chargers fought out of four ties, the last being 10-10, to take the fourth set 25-16 and send the match to a deciding fifth game.

There were four deadlocks in the fifth game as well, the final one being 6-6, before the Lady Greyhounds went out in front for good, 7-6, when the Lady Chargers hit the ball out.

From there, San Benito built leads of four points four times and won the fifth game 15-11 when a Brownsville Veterans block carried out.

“What stood out to me about this match is that we need to get in better shape,” Lady Chargers coach Lisa Mares said. “I thought both teams were kind of struggling with the conditioning part of the match. It was a long match and it’s still early in the season (so both squads still have time to improve).

“Unfortunately, we’re still not having the consistency that I want us to have, especially hitting-wise,” Mares added. “We’re looking better than when we first started the season though, so that’s a plus.

“We still don’t have a set lineup, so we’ll see who does the job. Matches like this one tonight are good for us.”

Pamela Sanchez and Frida Rangel each had 15 kills for the Lady Chargers. Mariana Tostado added nine kills. Also, Daniela Espinosa had 48 assists and libero Alex Parchmont had 27 digs.

For San Benito, Alysa Naranjo had 16 kills and two blocks, while Devany Castillo had eight kills and Zoe Betancourt had four kills and eight blocks. Ysabel Soria added seven kills and seven blocks. Sarah Garcia had 44 digs and Ariel Garcia had 36 assists.

By ROY HESS | Staff Writer

Where do the St. Joseph Academy Bloodhounds go from here?

Friday night’s first scrimmage of the 2018 football season at La Feria revealed they have a lot of work ahead of them.

Playing on the Lions’ home field, the Bloodhounds were outscored 5-1 during the controlled portion of the scrimmage and then they suffered a 28-7 setback in two quarters of game situation action.

La Feria returns a veteran 6-4 district co-championship team with all of its players at the skilled positions back, so the fact the Lions scored nine touchdowns on the night is not all that surprising.

And even though the Bloodhounds return five starters on each side of the ball from a 7-5 squad that won a TAPPS district title last season, make no mistake, it’s a new era for SJA football.

Bloodhounds head coach Tino Villarreal, now in his fifth year, said as much after Friday’s scrimmage.

Villarreal said he and his coaches welcome the challenge that is ahead for the team.

“I know our fan base isn’t used to seeing the scoreboard look like it did against La Feria,” the SJA coach said. “I told the players earlier Friday that it’s my job to get them ready for the season, and I am very optimistic about the task at hand. I’m very excited for the season and I accept the responsibility for how we looked in our first scrimmage.

“I’m also excited to see how we will look in our second scrimmage,” Villarreal added. “I hope that it is a night and day look. Practice time and game time (speed) are completely different. I’m excited for our season. The plan is to look back at this first scrimmage and tell ourselves that we’ve come a long, long way.

“La Feria has high hopes for its season and we have high hopes for our season as well.”

Melik Kauachi, a running back new to varsity action, scored both of SJA’s touchdowns on Friday, one during each half. They came on runs of 6 and 1 yards.

“We had some bright moments (against La Feria),” Villarreal said. “But we also showed our youth. Our offensive line had some good moments. We just have to fire out (of our blocks) all at the same time. I thought we had some good play from the offensive line, which has been kind of a question mark for us.

“We basically had three rookies out there (in the offensive line),” he added. “They had times where there was good pocket protection (for new quarterback Tomas Edge) and also some good run blocking.”

The Bloodhounds play their second scrimmage at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Canales Field against Porter.

“We look forward to a real strong test from Porter as well,” Villarreal said.

“We have a real tough non-district schedule,” he added. “Our job (as coaches) is to take things a week at a time and build things up because we want to be at full steam by the time we hit district (Oct. 19). Coming away with whatever bright spots we had against La Feria is what allows us to step forward in that direction.”

The Bloodhounds play their first three games of the regular season on the road, beginning with a contest at Grulla on Aug. 31. They’re at Progreso and Rio Hondo after that before playing their home opener at Canales Field against Raymondville on Sept. 21.

SJA’s TAPPS district opener is Oct. 19 at Corpus Christi John Paul II.

By ROY HESS | The Brownsville Herald

PORT ISABEL — It was a short journey down Highway 100 for the Los Fresnos Lady Falcons to the eighth annual Volley at the Beach Tournament in Port Isabel.

Their trip back home on Saturday was even more enjoyable as they brought along the volleyball tournament’s first-place trophy.

Los Fresnos defeated District 32-6A rival Hanna 25-17, 25-12 in Saturday’s championship match of the three-day, 13-team tournament played at Port Isabel’s main and practice gyms.

“I think the chemistry that we have (at this point early in the season) is different (and on a higher level) than everybody else’s (and that helped us win this tournament),” said Sandra Salazar, a senior outside hitter for the Lady Falcons.

“Also, it helps that the younger players on our team are very coachable and they always listen to everything we have to tell them. We connect with them, and that’s good.

“It felt really good to win this tournament,” Salazar added. “We just kept communicating as a team, even when we were up by 10 points or so (in the second game). We played really well. There are still some things we can fix, but overall, I think we did a good job.”

For the Lady Falcons in the title match, Emma Stambaugh, Victoria Hernandez and Kaitlyn Mata recorded seven, six and five kills, respectively. Also for Los Fresnos, Sarah Villarreal had 24 assists and six digs, Isis Delgado had 13 digs and

Jovanna Adame had six digs. Hernandez also had three blocks.

Leading hitters for the Lady Golden Eagles were Odalys Gonzales and Ariana Arcenaux.

It didn’t take long for the Lady Falcons to go out in front during each game and maintain the lead the rest of the way, although Hanna pulled to within one point four times in the opening set (11-10, 12-11, 17-16 and 18-17), but could never overtake the lead after being up 1-0.

Los Fresnos also had defeated Hanna at last weekend’s Poundfest Tournament in McAllen in an early round match.

“We just need to go on from here,” said Los Fresnos coach Becky Woods, whose team improved to 13-4 on the young season. “We need to keep racking up the wins. If we can go into next weekend’s Sharyland Tournament with the same momentum we had this weekend, I believe we’ll do a good job.

“I told our girls we had to make Hanna earn its points (in the championship match) because Hanna has some good hitters,” Woods added. “We just need to be everywhere all the time (to win against strong opponents). We can’t give anyone a break, especially not the ones in our district.”

Los Fresnos reached the title match with wins earlier Saturday against La Feria (25-1, 25-14) and PSJA Southwest (25-16, 25-13). Hanna, the defending tournament champion, advanced to Saturday’s final with victories against Port Isabel (25-20, 25-14) and Corpus Christi Carroll (18-25, 25-15, 15-12).

Carroll defeated PSJA Southwest 25-20, 21-25, 15-5 in the third-place match.

La Feria won the consolation championship with a 25-12, 25-21 victory over Weslaco East.

ROY HESS | The Brownsville Herald

LA FERIA — The La Feria Lions return a veteran team this football season with seven starters back on offense and seven on defense.

La Feria’s expectations for the 2018 season are pretty high after fielding a team that a year ago went 6-4 and shared the District 16-4A Division I title with Kingsville King.

The Lions flexed their muscles offensively and defensively Friday at home against Brownsville St. Joseph with a decisive victory in their first scrimmage of the new season.

In the first half’s controled portion of the scrimmage, the Lions outscored the Bloodhounds five times to one. In a second half played with game conditions, La Feria won 28-7.

“We looked extremely physical and we looked fast,” La Feria coach Oscar Salinas said. “I thought our conditioning was really good. We played well offensively and defensively.

“We looked pretty good with our first offensive and defensive units, so we’re really excited about that,” Salinas added. “We have a good nucleus of players coming back. All our players at skill positions are returning. It’s just a matter of replacing people in the offensive and defensive lines.

“With the returning skilled players we have, we felt we could move the ball tonight.”

St. Joseph coach Tino Villarreal said the Lions were playing “in mid-season form” on Friday night.

Two of the main scoring standouts for the Lions were quarterback Dorian Hernandez and wingback/running back Darius Hernandez. They are not related.

Early in the first half, Dorian Hernandez broke loose on a 70-yard scoring scamper. In a few minutes, he threw a 50-yard touchdown pass to Darius Hernandez. The pair hooked up on a 9-yard scoring pass on the first TD of the second half.

Also, Dorian Hernandez sprinted 75 yards down the right sideline to the end zone to make it 21-0 in the second half and Darius Hernandez scored on a 3-yard run up the middle in the opening half.

Dario Sanchez, La Feria’s backup QB, ran around left end for 19 yards to the end zone in the first half and tossed a 48-yard TD pass in the second half.

Both of St. Joe’s TDs came on short runs by tailback Melik Kauachi, one score during each half.

La Feria plays its second scrimmage of the season at Brownsville Lopez next Thursday. Also next Thursday, St. Joe is at home against Brownsville Porter for its second scrimmage.

By ROY HESS | The Brownsville Herald

PORT ISABEL — Sometimes, the biggest threat to team chemistry is the coach.

Los Fresnos Lady Falcons coach Becky Woods was of that opinion Friday at the eighth annual Volley at the Beach Tournament.

Port Isabel is host of the three-day, 13-team volleyball event.

Woods was feeling pretty good about things following Los Fresnos’ 25-11 opening-game victory against La Feria on Friday in the tournament’s first match of the day.

In fact, Woods was feeling so confident she made wholesale substitutions in the second game and later blamed herself for doing too much instead of just letting her team play and maintain its rhythm.

The Lady Falcons dropped the second game to La Feria 25-19, but rebounded to take the third set 15-7. It was Los Fresnos’ first of three match victories Friday on the way to claiming first place in Pool 3.

“We came out strong in the first game (against La Feria), but I made a lot of substitutions in the second game (and we lost),” Woods said. “It was my fault. I shouldn’t have made so many substitutions all at once (and it disrupted our chemistry). We had to toughen up and come back to win that third game.

“I told the girls, ‘If we make subs from now on, it’s only going to be maybe one at a time the rest of the way (before District 32-6A starts on Sept. 18),’” Woods added. “We’ve got to get all the pieces to the puzzle to fit together (in our starting lineup). District is getting closer.”

After defeating La Feria 25-11, 19-25, 15-7, Los Fresnos swept its next two matches against Corpus Christi Carroll (25-19, 25-17) and St. Joseph Academy (25-8, 25-16) to capture its pool and clinch a berth in today’s eight-team Gold

Division quarterfinals starting at 9 a.m.

For their combined three matches Friday, the Lady Falcons were led by Emma Stambaugh and Sandra Salazar (23 kills apiece), Victoria Hernandez (12 kills), Isis Delgado (28 digs) and Sarah Villarreal (77 assists).

Pool 3 runner-up Carroll also clinched a spot in the Gold Division quarterfinals along with Thursday’s pool winners Hanna and PSJA Southwest and Thursday’s pool runners-up Weslaco East and Santa Rosa.

Two other squads from the 13-team field will qualify for the Gold Division quarterfinals, while the remaining five teams will play in today’s Silver Division competition beginning at 11 a.m.

Pool 3 on Friday finished with Los Fresnos at 3-0, Carroll at 2-1, SJA at 1-2 and Monte Alto at 0-3.

In Gold Division quarterfinal matchups, it’s Hanna vs. Port Isabel, Weslaco East vs. Carroll, PSJA Southwest vs. Santa Rosa and Los Fresnos vs. La Feria.

Today’s Gold Division championship match is scheduled at 5 p.m.

Hanna defeated PSJA Southwest 21-25, 25-16, 15-10 in last year’s title match at the tournament.

By ROY HESS | The Brownsville Herald

LA FERIA — The St. Joseph Academy Bloodhounds opened their football scrimmage season against a tough opponent on the road Friday considering it was the defending District 16-4A Division I co-champion La Feria Lions.

The Bloodhounds are retooling their team following the graduation of quarterback Kai Money, a four-year starter.

La Feria returns seven starters on offense and seven on defense from a 6-4 ballclub.

SJA coach Tino Villarreal said the Lions are a team playing “in mid-season form.”

The Lions showed it by dominating Friday’s scrimmage before their home fans.

They won the first half’s controled portion of the scrimmage by outscoring SJA five times to one before triumphing in the second half played with game conditions 28-7.

Melik Kauachi, a running back for the Bloodhounds, tallied both of the touchdowns for his team on runs of 6 and 1 yards, one score during each half.

“First, hats off to La Feria,” Villarreal said. “They’ve got a lot of experienced numbers and they’re in mid-season form.

“We schedule scrimmages like these because that’s what makes us better,” Villarreal added. “La Feria has high hopes for its season and we have high hopes for our season as well. Today, we had some bright moments, but we showed our youth. That’s OK. It’s part of the growing pains we have to go through.”

The Bloodhounds are coming off a 7-5 season and having captured a district championship in football for the first time in more than 30 years.

But many of the SJA players are new this season.

“It’s just a matter of piecing things together for us and it takes time,” Villarreal said.

The Bloodhounds will play their second scrimmage next Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at Canales Field against Porter.

La Feria comes to Brownsville next Thursday to play its second scrimmage at Lopez.

By Roy Hess | The Brownsville Herald

PORT ISABEL— Hanna and PSJA Southwest were big winners during Thursday’s opening day of the eighth annual Volley at the Beach Tournament.

Port Isabel is the host of the 13-team, three-day volleyball event.

Hanna won Pool 2 with a 3-0 record, while PSJA Southwest captured Pool 1 with a 3-0 mark as well.

The Lady Golden Eagles, defending champions of the event, posted victories Thursday against Lopez (28-26, 27-25), Weslaco East (25-14, 25-22) and Rio Hondo (25-10, 25-11).

The clean sweep earned Hanna a berth as one of eight teams in Saturday’s Gold Division bracket-play quarterfinals.

“Our girls were very consistent. They played clean and not sloppy,” Hanna coach Ansgar Hagemann said. “The girls were present on the court and I really enjoyed seeing that.

“Lopez has picked up a lot (and gave us quite a tough match),” Hagemann added. “They’ve got some great hitters. They keep on improving from the first time we played
them (earlier this season and won).

“We also had 15 unforced errors in the first game (against Lopez), and that’s just too many for a team to commit.”

Also in Pool 2, Weslaco East went 2-1, Lopez 1-2 and Rio Hondo 0-3. Weslaco East is also expected to qualify for Saturday’s Gold Division quarterfinals beginning at 9 a.m.

The tournament continues at 9 a.m. today with competition in Pool 3 between Los Fresnos, Corpus Christi Carroll, St. Joseph Academy, La Feria and Monte Alto.

Meanwhile, in Pool 1 on Thursday, PSJA Southwest recorded its three victories against Port Isabel (25-18, 25-13), Santa Rosa (17-25, 25-11, 16-14) and Progreso (25-12, 25-15).

PSJA Southwest reached the tournament final a year ago and came up short against Hanna 21-25, 25-16, 15-10.

The Lady Javelinas faced their toughest match Thursday against Santa Rosa, which jumped out to a 10-3 edge in the opening game and went on to win 25-17. PSJA Southwest regained its composure and took the second game easily 25-11.

There were five ties in the third game between the Lady Warriors and Lady Javelinas — the final deadlock at 14-14 — before PSJA Southwest tallied the final two points of the match.

Santa Rosa ended up in second place in Pool 1 with a 2-1 record and is expected to advance to Saturday’s Gold Division bracket play. Also in Pool 1, Port Isabel finished 1-2 and Progreso went 0-3.

The Lady Tarpons played some close matches. After losing to PSJA Southwest 25-18, 25-13, they prevailed over Progreso 19-25, 26-24, 15-5 before falling to Santa Rosa 25-22, 25-27, 15-9.

“We’ve been talking to our girls about keeping themselves up and staying in the match,” Lady Tarpons coach Julie Breedlove said. “Sometimes, they tend to want to fall down (and slip out of the match when the other team goes on a run).

“It’s a mental thing,” Breedlove added. “It’s something we’ve been working on, and I won’t lie, that win (over Progreso) felt very good. We needed it. It will help with our confidence.

“The girls just pushed through to get that win, and it’s what we needed so they can know everything we’ve been working on is worth it.”