DAVE FAVILA | Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — There were times on Saturday when the Harlingen Lady Cardinals were playing against two opponents: Weslaco High and themselves.
The Lady Panthers were tough enough but, at least for a while, the Lady Cards were their own worst enemies.
Fortunately, the Lady Red Birds managed to fight off both adversaries to win 25-23, 15-25, 25-22, 25-21 and improve to 2-1 in District 32-6A play.
While the Lady Panthers did indeed play well and could have won the match on their own merits, it was the Lady Cards’ bipolar play that allowed Weslaco to hang around all match long.
Case in point: After blazing out to a 12-0 advantage in the first set, the Lady Cardinals suddenly broke down and allowed the Lady Panthers to come roaring back before finally regaining their composure somewhat to narrowly win the game 25-23.
The Lady Cards’ manic play continued into Game 2 and Weslaco took full advantage to win the set 25-15 and even the match at 1-1.
With momentum on their side, the Lady Panthers came out in the third set and took a quick 6-3 lead thanks to some nice hitting by Maddie Ybarra and Jacqee Moreno.
However, as well as the Lady Panthers played, they were aided a lot by the Lady Cardinals’ numerous serving errors and misshits.
But as suddenly as the Lady Red Birds went ice cold, they just as abruptly snapped out of it and began to come back, eventually tying the third set at 11-11.
From that point, both teams battled tooth and nail until the Lady Cards finally won the battle of attrition to take a 2-1 match advantage.
“I don’t know what happens to us,” said a relieved-looking Harlingen head coach Jennifer Martinez after the match.
“We just do that. We fall flat, can’t pick ourselves up and then lose matches. But at least this time we found ourselves and finished. I don’t know who that other team is that comes out, but we’re working on it and I’m glad they figured it out because we needed this win after losing to (Brownsville) Rivera on Tuesday.”
With impetus back on their side, the Lady Cardinals came out in the fourth set and took a 10-6 edge behind some solid hitting and blocking by Yazmine Martinez, Desiree Sanchez and Brianna Ramos.
The Lady Panthers did all they could to hang on and got within two points at 19-17, but the Lady Cards would not be denied in front of their small, yet boisterous home crowd.
Up next for the Lady Cardinals is a match at Weslaco East on Tuesday followed by a home match against three-time defending league champ Los Fresnos next Saturday.
As for Weslaco, the Lady Panthers are at Brownsville Rivera on Tuesday.