By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
LOS FRESNOS — The Los Fresnos Lady Falcons never let Hanna get much going in the way of momentum en route to sweeping past the Lady Golden Eagles 25-14, 25-16, 25-21 in Tuesday’s volleyball match between District 32-6A co-leaders.
The win at home keeps the defending district champion Lady Falcons on top of the district standings at 4-0, while Hanna slips to 3-1 with some challenging matches ahead.
“This was a match I was worried about, and I’m glad it’s over,” Los Fresnos coach Becky Woods said. “(Earlier this season) we scrimmaged Hanna, we played them in a tournament and then we saw them in another tournament. Every time we saw them, they kept looking better, and I told our girls that Hanna was going to be 3-0 (in district) when we played them.
“We’re not big with our blocking this year, so we have to play well and rely on our back court,” Woods added. “Tonight we needed (senior hitter) Jackie (Kingsbury) to be on and we needed to play well on defense. Our girls feed off each other. With Jackie doing what she was doing, it affected the other girls in a positive way. I think that’s what makes us a dangerous team.”
After seeing the Lady Falcons take the first two games 25-14 and 25-16, the Lady Eagles did their best to battle back in the third game. But they just couldn’t pull away after leading by as many as three points on five occasions, including the final time at 21-18 when the Lady Falcons hit the ball out of bounds.
From there, Los Fresnos reeled off the next seven points and won the game 25-21 when Hanna hit the ball out on match point.
Kingsbury led the Lady Falcons with 22 kills, 19 digs and one block.
“The Lady Falcons did a fantastic job tonight,” Hanna coach Ansgar Hagemann said. “They were on top of us the whole match. We tried to come back during the third game and we came close, but Kingsbury was just amazing. They could make a set for her from the parking lot if they wanted (and she would still get the kill). She’s a lot to handle for any defense, not only with her hitting, but with the plays she makes from the back, too. I thought Los Fresnos also did a good job of picking up our hits.
“We have some tough matches back to back as we go to San Benito Saturday, so it’s a challenging week for Hanna,” he added. “It was unfortunate for us that we lost tonight, but I’m pleased with the way my team is playing.”
Laure Webb and Ryan Wood finished with six and five kills, respectively for Hanna.
Besides Kingsbury, also for Los Fresnos, Giselle Ibarra had eight kills, six digs and one block, while Ashley Tumlinson had 11 digs, five aces, three kills and one block. Cassie Parra added seven digs and six kills. Isis Delgado had 27 digs and Sarah Villarreal finished with 38 assists and five digs.