By ROY HESS | The Brownsville Herald
The view from atop the District 32-6A volleyball standings is an enjoyable one for the Hanna Lady Golden Eagles.
Hanna is tied for the district lead at 2-0 with Los Fresnos after one week of 32-6A competition.
“ It’s better to be 2-0 than 0-2,” said Hanna coach Ansgar Hagemann, who celebrated his 49th birthday Saturday as the Lady Eagles won at home against Harlingen High 24-26, 25-10, 25-13, 25-22 to improve to 2-0.
“ This (win) is the best birthday present that I could wish for, and that’s the main present (I would want),” Hagemann added. “I don’t know how it would have felt (to try to celebrate my birthday) without a win in this match. I’d probably just want to go home (and not celebrate).”
The Lady Eagles and Lady Cardinals were coming off impressive five-set victories against Rivera and San Benito, respectively, during last Tuesday’s 32-6A openers, so after Saturday’s match, Hanna is now 2-0 and Harlingen High is 1-1.
Also Saturday, Los Fresnos defeated Rivera 25-13, 25-13, 25-16 to stay unbeaten at 2-0.
For Harlingen High, it was a missed opportunity to remain up there as a district leader.
“ I saw this match against Hanna as a match that could potentially hurt us down the road (in the 32-6A playoff race),” Lady Cardinals coach Joslynn Torres said after the loss. “For some reason, we just can’t seem to pull it out (and win) in this (Hanna) gym.
“ It was all about our seniors today,” Torres added. “Now was finally the time to beat Hanna at Hanna, and we still couldn’t pull it off. We were way off today. My attackers weren’t in sync and everything was just off. You could just tell it. We had a lot of serving errors and all the errors were on us. To me, Hanna didn’t beat us, we beat ourselves.”
Yes, it wasn’t the most well-played of matches Saturday as both teams many times followed a standout play with a hit or serve that went out of bounds on the next point.
The Lady Eagles came alive and put together a stronger showing after dropping the closely contested first game 26-24. There were 14 ties during the first set, with the last deadlock at 24. The first game saw Harlingen High surge ahead 25-24 after the Lady Eagles mishit the ball out on a volley. A back-line kill on the final point of the first game lifted the Lady Cardinals.
After that, however, the match’s momentum carried over to the Hanna side, particularly when the Lady Eagles won the second and third games with decisive scores (25-10 and 25-13). Hanna and Harlingen High were tied at 8 during the fourth game. From there, Hanna led the rest of the way and won 25-22 thanks to a well-placed tip by the Lady Eagles’ Odalys Gonzalez.
Gonzalez led Hanna with 18 kills, nine digs and four blocks, and teammate Ari Arceneaux had 12 kills and eight digs. Also for Hanna, Nataly Davila had five kills and seven blocks, while Angelina Castillo had 16 digs. Tabitha Fernandez added 20 assists and seven digs, and Aniel Aguero contributed 14 assists, eight digs, three aces and two blocks.
“ Honestly, it feels amazing (to be 2-0) because we started completely opposite in district last year,” said Arceneaux, a senior outside hitter/middle blocker. “We had to struggle to get into the playoffs (in 2017). I think this year starting off strong (in district) gives us a lot of confidence.
“ We have a good group of seniors, so going back to the playoffs or even winning district would be amazing,” Arceneaux added. “I’m super proud of the team and how we’ve come together. We’re so close, and we’re a group of sisters. I’m so anxious to see how all this turns out (in the district race).”
District 32-6A action continues at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Hanna is at San Benito, and Harlingen High plays host to Los Fresnos.