By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
The Hanna Lady Golden Eagles are using every match they have left in the regular season as preparation for the playoffs.
The Lady Eagles were tested on their home court Tuesday by Harlingen South, particularly during the second and third games, before coming away with a 25-11, 26-24, 25-19 victory in District 32-6A volleyball action.
Hanna coach Ansgar Hagemann said his team clinched a spot in the postseason with its three-game sweep of Lopez last Saturday, so the Lady Eagles now are focused on winning and going into the postseason with some momentum.
Los Fresnos and Brownsville Veterans Memorial also have secured playoff spots from 32-6A, and the district’s final postseason berth to the fourth-place finisher figures to go to San Benito or Rivera.
A pair of 32-6A matches remain for the Lady Eagles (9-3 district), starting with Saturday’s contest at Rivera. South (2-10) also has two district matches left and will be at home Saturday against San Benito.
“Now we’re cemented in third place in district (with tonight’s win), I’m pretty sure,” Hagemann said.
“South is like a Pandora’s Box, because you never know exactly what you’ll get from them,” he added. “They kind of started slow in the first game, but then they really fired it up. They had some awesome swings and their defense was sharp with some good blocking, so it became a good match. I’m really content with this win. It was a good match.”
A key point of the match came during the second game with the score tied at 24. A kill by Hanna’s Sasha-Rae Brown made it 25-24, and the Lady Eagles won 26-24 when the Lady Hawks were unable to get the ball to go over the net on their third hit.
During the third game, South led by as many as three points six times, the last being 17-14. But Hanna rallied to tie it at 17 before going ahead for good 18-17 on a hitting error by the Lady Hawks.
A tip by Hanna’s Bianca Olivares allowed the Lady Eagles to win 25-19 and sweep the match.
“Despite some messups that we had, our girls were hanging right in there,” South coach Jennifer Taliancich said. “It was a good improvement for us to stay right up there with Hanna. It came down to crucial points, and we’d miss a serve or something. That was our downfall.”
Tina Montez and Adrianna Espinoza had nine and six kills, respectively, for the Lady Hawks. Teammate Lexi Kruse had seven assists.
For Hanna, Brown finished with 11 kills, and Olivares contributed 19 assists and four kills. Pamela Ellis had 10 kills, four blocks and 13 digs. Flora Herrera and Alexa Herrera each had four kills, with Flora logging three blocks. Lauren Webb added six kills, and Gianna Muniz had nine assists.
Also for Hanna, Yelitza Barrientos and Jenny Guerrero each had 15 digs, and Julie Soto added five digs.