By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
It was a volleyball match that could have gone on all night, and it seemed like it did when Brownsville Veterans Memorial played host to Edcouch-Elsa on Tuesday at the Lady Chargers’ gym.
Brownsville Veterans prevailed in a back-and-forth, non-district battle 26-28, 25-21, 6-25, 25-20, 15-13.
The junior varsity contest between the two schools went the distance of three games, so the varsity match started late and wound up going five games with four of the five sets played on very even terms and extended volleys on just about every point.
It was a coming-of-age type of victory for the Lady Chargers, who have a number of new players on their roster this season. They improved to 10-7 on the year, and the Lady Yellowjackets slipped to 11-5.
“This was definitely a roller coaster (type of match),” Lady Chargers coach Lisa Mares said. “We’re a fairly young team, and we’ve been working on consistency all the time. We’re a young team with three sophomores in the rotation and both of my middle blockers are sophomores, so we’re growing and learning as we go.”
The opening game was typical of the match’s competitiveness as there were 13 ties, the last of which was at 26. The Lady Chargers led by as many as seven points twice, 19-12 and 22-15, before the Lady Yellowjackets rallied and went on a 13-4 run to take the first set 28-26.
“It was a great match, I just wish it had a little bit better ending for us,” Lady Yellowjackets coach Ofelia Griffith said. “It came down to consistency. We had some great moments, and I’m very proud of that. It’s a young group. We have quite a few freshmen and sophomores in there, so we’re pretty young.
“We were young last year, too, when we had four freshmen (playing), and now they’re sophomores,” the E-E coach added. “Half of our team is (composed of) underclassmen, and they play regular (minutes) and everything, and that’s the way it was last year. This year we’re still young, but more experienced.
“We’re a solid team, but consistency is something we still need to work on. That’s something to always work on, not for just a game, but for the whole match.”
On Tuesday, just when one team looked strong the other squad battled back, so consistency and youth described the Brownsville Veterans squad as well.
The second game was tied eight times, the last of which was at 16, as the Lady Chargers pulled away to win 25-21 and give themselves some hope. But that hope seemed to disappear when they fell behind 17-1 in the third game and soon suffered a 25-6 loss.
The Lady Chargers then righted themselves and never trailed en route to winning the fourth game 25-20.
The final set featured eight ties, the last time at 10, before Brownsville Veterans capitalized on some timely kills to go ahead for good. After a kill by the Lady Chargers’ Sarah Sandoval gave her team a 14-13 edge, the Lady Yellowjackets hit the ball out to make it 15-13 for the home team and end the closely contested match.
For the Lady Chargers, Bridget Himes, Megan Sanchez and Sandoval finished with 14, 13 and nine kills, respectively. Sandoval also had 25 digs. Teammate Krista Lopez had 44 digs, and Cassandra Valdez added 44 assists, 20 digs and three aces.
For E-E, Alejandra Martinez finished with 13 kills, four digs, one ace and one assist. Cassidy Martinez contributed 12 kills, five digs and two blocks, and Maddie Acevedo added 28 digs, nine kills, three aces and one assist. Also for E-E, Bianca Cardenas had 44 digs and one ace.
The Lady Chargers next play at the Sharyland Tournament beginning Thursday. E-E will be at the Laredo United Tournament that starts the same day.