CLAIRE CRUZ | Special to the Star
RAYMONDVILLE – The mark of a great athlete is the ability to be bigger than any moment and La Feria senior Myah Salas certainly made hers in Raymondville on Monday night.
With her team needing a victory to clinch the District 32-4A title outright, Salas turned in a career-best, 37 kill performance to lead the Lionettes to a four-set win (25-16, 18-25, 25-14, 25-18) and their second-straight championship.
“I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed something like that in my career,” La Feria head coach Rebea Fraga said. “Sometimes I say ‘unleash the beast’ and she did. It was just a remarkable performance.”
The Lionettes dominated the service line to take the opening set pretty handily. Libero Destiny Martinez delivered the majority of her passes on target to spark a very efficient offensive performance.
However, La Feria failed to carry that momentum into set two and the Lady Kats took advantage of a plethora of unforced errors from the Lionettes — including six service mishaps. Raymondville’s defense, led by libero Rachel Muniz’s scrappy effort, improved tremendously and its hitters finally found a groove, resulting in a set win.
The Lionettes had to make a lineup change prior to set three due to an injury and they struggled to get in rhythm early, but solid serving and hitting depth helped them overcome.
“One of our setters’ hand was swelling, so we had to go to a 5-1 (defense) and it took us some time to settle down, but we were able to rebound,” Fraga said. “We kept our composure, we kept our heads straight and we really hustled.”
Raymondville seniors Claudia Mesa and Iscela Bazaldua really came to life in the final two sets, putting up a forceful block at the net and finding the floor for big kills.
But the arms of Salas and Sierra Salinas were too much down the stretch for the Lady Kats defense. They were extremely successful swinging from the back row and ultimately their efficiency carried La Feria to victory.
“It feels really, really good to have another district championship,” Salas said. “I felt very comfortable tonight and I felt like I had a groove and I just wanted to go out and give it my all.”