By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
CORPUS CHRISTI — It was a magical feeling when Brownsville Veterans Memorial rallied from a two-game deficit to win Tuesday’s Class 6A bi-district volleyball match in five sets.
During Thursday’s area-round playoff contest the Lady Chargers again fell behind by two games, and for a few moments after they won the third set it seemed as though another miraculous comeback was entirely possible.
But this time it just wasn’t to be as the District 32-6A runner-up Lady Chargers lost 25-18, 25-20, 26-28, 25-18 to the District 29-6A champion Laredo United Lady Longhorns at the Corpus Christi Ray gym.
“I thought we might pull it out again,” Lady Chargers coach Lisa Mares said after her team won the third game 28-26. “To me, I felt we adjusted too late (in losing the first two games). It took us a while to get going.
“Laredo United is a very good team, and we kind of needed everyone on our team to be ‘on’ tonight, but it wasn’t that way,” Mares added. “I saw it as two evenly matched teams playing each other, but their girls were just a little more ‘on’ than ours were.”
United (35-11) advances to next week’s regional quarterfinal round to face either McAllen Rowe (39-9) or Edinburg High (32-7). Brownsville Veterans, ranked No. 6 in the Rio Grande Valley, ended its season at 30-13.
United has advanced to the area playoffs four straight years, and this is the first time the Lady Longhorns have reached the third round.
“Wow, I don’t have words to describe how lucky I am to coach these girls,” United coach Leticia L. Longoria said. “We’ve been waiting to open a new chapter of our volleyball program by making it to the regional quarterfinals.
“Last year we came up short against Brownsville Veterans at this stage of the playoffs,” she added. “This season our girls had the heart and will to do it.”
When the Lady Longhorns and Lady Chargers met in the area playoffs last season, Brownsville Veterans won 25-23, 19-25, 25-19, 28-26. The teams had not played each other this season before Thursday.
During Thursday’s first game, the Lady Longhorns, behind the standout play of junior hitter Isela Murillo, unleashed a number of powerful kills that gave them an edge. During the second game, United changed things up a bit and started finding open spaces in the middle of the Lady Chargers’ defense by scoring on some well-placed tips.
As a result, the Lady Chargers found themselves trailing by two games for the second straight match, and with their backs to the wall they again showed their resolve. But this time, it just didn’t work out, even after they fought hard to win the third set.
The score of the third game was tied three times early and five more times down the stretch, with the last of the deadlocks coming at 26 after Murillo scored on a tip. From there, a Megan Sanchez kill gave the Lady Chargers a 27-26 advantage, and they captured the game 28-26 on a hitting error by the Lady Longhorns.
During the fourth game, there were six ties, including the last of them at 9, before United went ahead for good 10-9 and took the set and match with a decisive kill on the final point to prevail 25-18.
Sarah Sandoval, a senior hitter, was a determined performer for the Lady Chargers with 19 kills, which is believed to be a career best. She also had 30 digs.
Also for Brownsville Veterans, Ashley Tumlinson and Sanchez had 13 and 10 kills, respectively, and Sanchez added 11 digs. Teammate Cassie Valdez finished with 49 assists and 34 digs.
Murillo and Gabriela Senties led the Lady Longhorns with 15 kills apiece. Teammate Mariela Bustamante added eight kills and a team-high four blocks.
The Lady Chargers were coming off Tuesday’s emotional 22-25, 24-26, 25-16, 25-22, 15-12 bi-district win at home against PSJA Memorial.
United defeated Mission High 25-20, 25-19, 25-9 during its bi-district match at Roma, also Tuesday.