BROWNSVILLE — Brownsville Rivera head volleyball coach Mary Elizabeth Guerra told her daughter, Richelle Guerra, about all of her adventures playing volleyball in college at TSC and UTPA.
Richelle Guerra, The Brownsville Herald’s libero of the year and All-Valley selection, grew up wanting to follow in her mother’s footsteps and took the biggest step toward accomplishing that dream by signing with Texas Lutheran University on Thursday at Brownsville Rivera High School.
“I have been working on this since Day 1,” Richelle Guerra said. “My parents had been working with me since I was 3. This has just been a non-stop thing I have been working towards.”
Mary Guerra never pushed her daughter into playing the sport, letting her play whatever sport she wanted to play, the coach said.
“Luckily for us, her love was volleyball,” she said. “We are so happy for her because she got to the next level. That was always her goal, even when she was little. She is not very tall and there are a lot of good defenders out there, so I knew it was going to be tough.”
The libero had a terrific career as a Raiders player with her mother as coach and father, Richard Guerra, as assistant coach. The standout finished with 2,431 digs during her four-year career and won many superlatives as one of the best liberos not just in the Brownsville area, but in the Rio Grande Valley.
“Thank God she found the school that she wanted to go to, and that also wanted her,” Mary Guerra said.
When the Brownsville Rivera standout heads to Seguin, she is set to stay in her center defensive position instead of having to move to the right or left side of the back row. TLU is losing multiple members of the back row.
The opportunity for playing time in a program coming off a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference championship in NCAA’s Division III and a low student-to-teacher ratio in the classroom sealed the deal for the senior libero.
“I think it is the perfect school for her,” her mother said. “It has everything she needs. We got very lucky to find it.”
Guerra was grateful for her time at Brownsville Rivera, especially her teammates and the program that helped achieve this goal with her, she said. Guerra also thanked former coach Lester Shears for helping her become the player she is today.
The senior libero is currently playing on the RGV Venom 18s team that is set to compete in the 2023 18s National Championship in late April in Columbus, Ohio.