Last week against Harlingen South, the Lady Cards rallied from a 0-2 deficit to beat the Lady Hawks 3-2.
On Tuesday night, the Lady Cards found themselves, once again, in a 0-2 hole, this time against the San Benito Lady Greyhounds.
And, once again, the Lady Red Birds battled back. However, this time around the Lady ’Hounds managed to hold off the competition and win the match 3-2 (25-18, 25-19, 18-25, 20-15, 15-12.)
The victory was key for the Lady ’Hounds, who improved to 5-5 in District 32-6A (9-13 overall) and stayed in contention for a playoff spot with four matches to go in the regular season.
The Lady Cardinals, meanwhile, dropped to 3-7 in league play and their postseason hopes took a big hit.
“I’m very proud of my girls for a hard-fought win,” said Lady ’Hounds head coach Ruby Media. “We have several young girls playing but our older girls’ leadership came through for us tonight.
“We knew they (Lady Cardinals) were going to be tough and I’m just very happy we came out of it with a win.”
If Tuesday’s match was a Hollywood movie, words critics might use to describe it would be: “Thrilling!” “A real blockbuster!” “A non-stop roller coaster ride!” “An instant classic.”
In Game 1, the Lady Cards pulled out to an early lead thanks, in part, to several miscues by the Lady Greyhounds.
Despite the mistakes, the Lady ’Hounds found their footing and battled back to take the first set 25-18.
In Game 2, the teams traded punches early until the Lady ’Hounds went on a couple of runs to eventually pull away for the 25-19 win.
The Lady Cardinals had San Benito right where it wanted.
Trailing 0-2, Harlingen did what it does best and began to rally.
In Game 3, the Lady Cards came out fired up and quickly built an 8-3 lead thanks to some nifty kills by Addison Dickey.
The Lady ’Hounds fought back, but in the end the Lady Cards would not be denied and won the set 25-18.
Momentum stayed on the Lady Cards’ side early in Game 4, but San Benito battled and fought its way back to a 10-5 lead looking to close out the match.
Not so fast.
The Lady Cardinals refused to go home and eventually tied the game at 16-16 before pulling away to win the game 25-20 and tie the match at 2-2.
With the Lady Cardinals fans going wild in anticipation of another come-from-behind win, the Lady ’Hounds managed to block out the noise and took a 4-0 lead to start Game 5.
But, once again, the Lady Cards refused to go easily as they tied things up at 4-4 and took a slim 6-5 lead.
With both fan bases going crazy after every point, the game went back and forth until the Lady ’Hounds finally found an opening after breaking a 9-9 tie. They scored three straight points to go up 11-9 and from there managed to hold on for the 15-12 win.
The Lady ’Hounds were led by Kayleen Reyes, who had 10 kills, Monica Garcia, who had eight kills and six blocks, and Clarissa Gomez, who finished with five kills, three aces and 28 assists.