By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
The Brownsville Veterans Memorial Lady Chargers came out for Monday’s Class 6A bi-district volleyball match on their home court only to encounter a PSJA Memorial squad that was on fire.
The District 32-6A runner-up Lady Chargers had to dig deep and fight for their lives to rally and win the match 22-25, 24-26, 25-16, 25-22, 15-12 against the District 31-6A third-place Lady Wolverines.
“This feels awesome,” said Sarah Sandoval, Brownsville Veterans’ senior outside hitter. “It’s another accomplishment for us this year. (To win) with the young girls we have on this team, it was just an amazing experience. All of our girls on this team played their hearts out tonight.”
The Lady Chargers (30-12), who advanced three rounds in the postseason last season, next face Mission High or Laredo United later this week in the area round of the playoffs.
“These (PSJA Memorial) girls came out really good, and even their coach (Angie Gonzales) told me, ‘Hey, I bet you didn’t expect us to be this good, right?” Lady Chargers coach Lisa Mares said. “I was like, ‘No, I didn’t,’ because we played them earlier in the season (and won handily). They’ve totally improved a lot.
“I was really proud of the way our girls came back and won this match,” she added.
Down two games, the Lady Chargers somehow gathered their composure, made adjustments and fought back to win. Still, it was anything but easy.
The Lady Wolverines (25-15) clearly possessed the momentum early as standout sophomore hitter Kristi Gomez, along with her sister, Deserey, also a sophomore hitter, dominated at the net, converting almost every opportunity with a decisive kill.
The Lady Wolverines brought along a large number of vocal fans who had plenty to cheer about throughout the match. That support seemed to inspire the PSJA Memorial girls.
However, after losing the first two games 25-22 and 26-24, things began to turn in the Lady Chargers’ favor during the third set as they cruised to a 25-16 victory.
During the fourth game, PSJA Memorial again started off strong and led by as many as six points three times, the last of which was 10-4. Gradually, though, the Lady Chargers battled back and tied the set at 15, 16, 17 and 21.
From there, Brownsville Veterans tallied four of the next six points and won the fourth game 25-22 when Kristi Gomez’s strong kill attempt carried just long.
Moving on to fifth and deciding game, the score was deadlocked seven times, including at 8. A pair of timely service aces by Brownsville Veterans’ Cassie Valdez and a kill by Sandoval gave the home team a 10-8 edge, but PSJA Memorial rallied to tie it one more time at 11.
Hitting errors down the stretch hurt the Lady Wolverines, and they lost the fifth game and match by hitting long on the final point as the Lady Chargers prevailed 15-12.
“(Trailing 2-0) we were just thinking about going out (staying calm) and having fun,” Sandoval said. “We knew that wasn’t us in the first two sets. We were tense, we were stressed and we weren’t playing our game.
“I told the girls, ‘This is not our last match. We’ve worked too hard this season to let this happen right now,’” Sandoval added. “We’re not the team to give up so easy. I told the girls we had to dig deep, fight and find a way to win the match, and we did.”
Megan Sanchez, Bridget Himes and Sandoval finished with 13, 11 and 10 kills, respectively, for the Lady Chargers. Sandoval also had 22 digs. Krista Lopez and Paola Villarreal added 31 and 25 digs, respectively, and Lopez contributed six kills.
Also for Brownsville Veterans, Valdez had 36 assists and four aces.
PSJA Memorial was led by Kristi Gomez, who registered an impressive 33 kills. She also had four blocks and three digs. Deserey Gomez had 14 kills, 10 digs and four blocks.
Also for the Lady Wolverines, Amanda Aguilera finished with 42 assists and five digs, and Carla De Leon had 15 digs and five assists. Victoria Maldonado contributed 20 digs.