McALLEN — It was only appropriate that Lexi Gonzalez stood at the end line, ready to serve.
Earlier in the day, she set the all-time program kill record for McAllen High. She smashed her way to 28 kills, added three crucial blocks and now was about to serve match point.
“I was pretty nervous at that time,” Gonzalez said. “I just wanted to make sure it stayed in play.”
It did, and Haidee Moore put the ball away with her seventh kill as McHi claimed an intense 25-17, 25-22, 23-25, 25-18 victory over McAllen Memorial on the road. The win split the season series between the two squads and leaves them alone atop District 30-6A with 10-1 records and three games remaining.
The match was highlighted by amazing defensive play that kept several rallies going with saves that seemed unlikely. McHi libero Audrey Zamora and defensive specialist Sabrina Garza were diving, sprawling and reaching nearly everything that Memorial’s plethora of hitters blasted at them. Likewise, Memorial libero Cori Talamantez and Mercedes Lara were extremely stingy when it came to letting a ball touch the floor.
“That’s where it all starts, with defense,” McHi head coach Paula Dodge said. “They were all over the court, A couple of times crawling after them to keep them off the floor. They had an awesome match.”
During one play in the third set with McHi trailing 20-18, Garza dove for a ball that all but seemed to be on the way to the ground, somehow popped it up over the net where it floated down untouched to close McHi to within one as the Bulldogs looked for a sweep. Gonzalez followed with a kill, Ada Sadlier served up an ace and McHi went up 23-21.
Then, with the Bulldogs two away from match point, Demy Banks and Bianca Ramirez fired up back-to-back kills to lead the Mustangs back en route to winning the set, 25-23.
Midway through the fourth set with both teams scoring back and forth after extensive rallies that could have easily ended in a point for one team or the other on more than one occasion, McHi went on a 5-0 run behind a Gonzalez back row kill, a pair of Memorial errors and a Celina Saenz kill for a 15-11 advantage. Sydney Marburger ended the streak with a kill down the line and Memorial was back within three.
The Mustangs’ Natalie Silva then heated up with two kills and it was 15-14. With an 18-15 lead it was again Gonzalez, but not with a hard but a tip outside to the line and two Memorial errors later and the Bulldogs led 21-15.
Memorial won the first meeting between the two state-ranked teams and head coach Ashley Doffing said she felt their approach on Saturday was something that would need to be worked on.
“We need to work. We need to come in and treat every team like we are the underdog,” Doffing said. “That what we did the first time, that what gave us an extra push.”
Gonzalez came into the match needing just seven kills to break the school record of 1,517 owned by Sidney Pemelton and collected that early in the second set. At the end of the night, she ended up with 1,539 with three regular season matches left.
“Today, we brought out a little more energy and were a little more focused,” Dodge said. “Lexi is our court and team leader and she went out there and she’s the one the girls look to. She had them focused like here and came through today, as always.”
Memorial (27-8 overall) came into the matched ranked No. 12 in Class 6A by the Texas Girls Coaches Association, while McHi (37-2) was No. 18 in the state.
“That first match there was a lot of pressure and we let them (Memorial) get away with some shots where we didn’t react or adjust,” Zamora said. “But we watched and learned and it showed today.”