By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
Hanna and San Benito are such evenly matched volleyball teams that no lead would seem to be safe.
Tuesday’s District 32-6A match at Hanna was proof of that. The two teams entered the contest tied for third place in district at 7-4.
Hanna was looking good after winning the first two games, but San Benito battled back to win 23-25, 15-25, 25-23, 25-14, 15-12.
“I’m very happy by the performance of our girls at the end,” San Benito coach Rudy Medina said. “I know Hanna got us in the first two games. My girls weren’t playing how the team that I know is capable of playing. That kind of upset me, but of course, the final product of it all was we won the match because they wanted it and they realized what they needed to do to finalize it.
“(After the first two games and we were trailing 2-0), I just told the girls that we’ve been in that situation before and that it wasn’t over,” Medina added. “I told them we could come back, but that we had to be mentally strong and believe that we could do it. I knew they could do it because these girls are a great team. It’s a big boost to our playoff hopes.”
San Benito takes over sole possession of third place in district at 8-4 behind first-place and outright champion Los Fresnos (12-0) and second-place Rivera (9-3). Hanna slips to fourth place at 7-5.
On Tuesday, over the first four games, each team won a close game and then one by a decisive margin, so it all came down to the fifth set.
In that fifth game, Hanna was again looking good with a 6-1 advantage and later was up 8-4 and 9-5, but the Lady Golden Eagles couldn’t maintain their lead. The score was soon tied at 10 and then 11.
That was when the Lady Greyhounds’ Arlene Lucero came up big, scoring three of the next five points to lift her team to victory. Her block made it 12-11 and her tip upped the lead to 13-11. Her block on match point made it 15-12 for San Benito and clinched the win.
For San Benito, Kayleen Reyes, Lilly Leon and Alysa Naranjo finished with 20, 13 and 11 kills, respectively. Larisa Garcia and Sarah Garcia added 37 and 20 digs, respectively, and Ariel Garcia contributed 29 assists.
For Hanna, Lauren Webb had 23 kills and six blocks while teammate Ryan Wood had 15 kills and two blocks. Halle Penrod contributed eight kills and two blocks, and Alexa Hernandez had four kills.
Hanna next plays Saturday against Harlingen High and San Benito goes against Weslaco High the same day.