McALLEN — When Lexi Gonzalez is on fire, McAllen High plays on a different level.
“Lexi was on fire today,” McHi head coach Paul Dodge said. “She played tremendously.”
Gonzalez, a senior hitter for the Bulldogs, racked up 20 kills in just three sets and McHi defeated city rival McAllen Rowe 25-15, 25-20, 25-20 on Tuesday at the McAllen High gym. The match was the beginning of the second time through the District 30-6A schedule and once the Bulldogs got on a roll, they steamrolled through a resilient Warriors defense that just kept getting too many balls blasted at them to stay in the contest.
The two teams played earlier in the season and McHi claimed another sweep, but that game proved much closer than the score indicated, while Tuesday’s matchup wasn’t as close.
Errors were more prevalent than kills or digs early on, however, until Rowe’s Anna Honrubia blistered a back row kill that split the McHi defense and gave Rowe a 5-4 lead. That, however, transitioned straight into a power performance from the Bulldogs.
First, Gonzalez recorded a kill. Then, Haidee Moore registered a block off a Honrubia attempt. It was the only block of the night for the Bulldogs. Andrea Tovar got into the kill party with a slide kill and Ada Sadlier added back-to-back aces and suddenly the Bulldogs led 9-5.
The power game continued as Celina Saenz and Moore chalked up back-to-back kills and McHi led 20-12, going on an 11-7 run to take control.
McHi fell behind again early in the second set as Honrubia and freshman Mia Mata each had kills and Rowe took a 4-1 lead.
That’s when Gonzalez showed up again with three straight kills over a five-point period and McHi jumped back in front. Gonzalez said that this was one of her better games of the season.
“I feel like I’ve improved throughout the season and that’s what we’re all doing,” the senior said. “I think I realized it, like, four points into the game that, OK, it’s time to step up and keep going with it and keep swinging.”
With McHi slowly extending its lead in the second set, the Warriors returned a ball just a little long and Gonzalez was there to put the ball nearly straight down for a 15-10 lead.
“I was actually pretty scared because I thought the ball was going to hit the net and I would touch it but I just timed it right,” she said.
“When she has a great game, it helps the rest of the team — it sets everyone on fire and keeps that intensity up,” Dodge said. “This is the second round through district and this was one more step closer to where we want to be.”
Dodge came into the game concerned about the team’s defense. They put at least some of those concerns away, first with aggressive serving and second with a back row that let very few attack attempts hit the floor, not allowing the Warriors to get into any groove.
“I thought we were much better moving, talking more and communicating better,” said Dodge, whose team improved to 36-2 on the season and 7-1 in the district. “I liked what I saw but there’s still more work and a couple thing we need to improve still.”
To go with her 20 kills, Gonzalez also had nine digs and two of the team’s 11 aces. Saenz added 12 kills and Moore had seven. Seven different Bulldogs registered at least one kill and six collected at least one ace.
McHi returns to action for a noon matchup Saturday at Mission High. Rowe, which fell to 4-4 in district, will host La Joya Juarez-Lincoln at noon Saturday.