By CLAIRE CRUZ, Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — The Brownsville Rivera Lady Raiders maintained their perfect record with a come-from-behind win in four sets over Harlingen High on Saturday.
The Lady Raiders (9-0, 4-0) showed why they’re ranked No. 18 in the state in Class 6A by the Texas Girls Coaches Association, battling through tightly contested sets to earn the 21-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-16 victory. They’re the only undefeated team in District 32-6A and inching closer to the district title.
“It feels great (getting this win),” Rivera coach Mary Elizabeth Avelar-Guerra said. “I know it’s still not over, we have three games, but they’re one of the toughest teams and Los Fresnos, and I told them, ‘If they beat us, we’re all tied for first. This is going to help us get that spot if you really want it. But you have to fight for it, because they’re not going to give it to us.’ (Harlingen High’s) a tough team, and it was back and forth. It could’ve gone either way. I’m really proud of the way they stepped it up and played hard and finished it. It was an awesome game on both sides.”
The rallies were long and competitive throughout the match. Both teams were solid defensively, anchored by two tireless liberos in Rivera’s Richelle Guerra and Harlingen High’s Elena Aguinaga. The defenders passed efficiently and picked up rocket kills from the hitters on both rosters.
“We always say the defense is going to win the ballgames because if we don’t have the pass we don’t have anything to hit,” Lady Cardinals coach Joslynn Torres said. “My libero is awesome. (Aguinaga) has earned her spot and shows us every game that she is where she needs to be and is there for a reason.”
Harlingen High outside hitters Juli Bryant and Casey Vidal carried the lion’s share of the touches to lead the Lady Cardinals’ offense. Bryant swung from all three front-row positions and put down powerful kills to help her team erase an early deficit to win the opening set. A block by Vidal and some unforced hitting errors by the Lady Raiders helped Harlingen High open a five-point cushion that was enough to seal the set despite Rivera killing off two set points.
The Lady Cardinals rode that momentum to go up 6-3 in the second, but the offense started to stutter as the hitters sent balls long, leading to tips that the Lady Raiders turned into points. Christina Garza, Kenya Ibarra and Laisha Izaguirre led from the front row to help Rivera pull away late in the set. Rivera setter Clarissa Olivares sparked a scoring run from the service line to help create some distance.
Olivares ran the Lady Raiders’ offense well during the final two sets, utilizing all of her powerful hitters across the net to keep the Lady Cardinals guessing. Kimberly Chavez and Alondra Guzman contributed to the attack, and Guerra recorded some kills from the back row. But Ibarra and Garza were the primary attackers, and their booming hits carried Rivera to victory.
“When both teams are playing awesome, both picking up balls, you have to play smart,” Avelar-Guerra said. “You have to move it around. It can’t be the same thing all the time because their defense is playing awesome.”
Harlingen High’s Cassie Rodriguez notched some blocks and was another powerful arm in the offense, but the frequency with which Bryant and Vidal were used caused some fatigue. Izaguirre recorded some blocks for Rivera, leading to an uptick in tips as the Lady Cardinals tried to work around her presence.
But the quick-footed and relentless Lady Raiders defense let very little fall without getting a body underneath. Guerra moved all around the court, diving under tips and squaring up digs to deliver precise passes to her setter to keep the offense running smoothly.
“Defensively, oh my gosh, (Rivera is) unstoppable. We can pound it as hard as we can and they’ll still pick it up,” Torres said. “The good out of this is we continued to compete rather than just folding. We just came out of a loss to Los Fresnos, and we played an amazing Game 1 against Los Fresnos and then we lost the next three. Here, we played a good Game 1 and won, and then the next three, we competed, we fought, but we fell short. I never like to lose, but I’m proud of what I saw in Game 2, 3 and 4 compared to what I saw versus Los Fresnos.”