GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
When senior and key cog Deanna Spear went down in late September with a season-ending injury, Sophia Luna said the McAllen Rowe volleyball players looked at each other in practice and thought, “Oh my goodness.”
For the second straight season, Spear had been splitting the setting duties with junior Vanessa Lopez. But after the injury, Lopez would have to handle the role on her own, playing all six rotations as Rowe moved from a 6-2 offense to a 5-1.
“I felt challenged, but I really felt that I could overcome it,” Lopez said. “I really wanted to show everyone that it’s fine. I can go out there, and I can do it. No matter what problems we go through, we can overcome them. It was a great opportunity.” Lopez rose to the occasion, a primary reason Spear’s injury never derailed Rowe’s trip to a Class 6A regional semifinal match against New Braunfels Canyon at 8 tonight in the Alamo Convention Center in San Antonio.
Rowe’s match will follow the Valley’s lone other regional semifinal. McAllen Memorial is set to face San Antonio O’Connor at 6.
“When Deanna went down, it was a tremendous role that Vanessa needed to take,” Rowe coach Magda Canales said. “She knew that she needed to carry the team by herself, and she didn’t think twice. She didn’t look back. She saw that she needed to do this for the team, and she took care of business.”
The transition was no small shift. After typically playing only three of the rotations and subbing out for a bigger player in the front row, Lopez needed to be in for the Lady Warriors on every point.
Lopez admits she felt some extra pressure, knowing Rowe didn’t have any other setters to spell her off the bench.
“It was like, ‘OK Vanessa, we’re playing 5-1. Can you last all of these games?” Luna said. “And she took the challenge quite well. Of course, it wasn’t easy at first, but she’s come a long way in her defense and setting overall.”
In the unusual position of having to play defense on the front row, Lopez said she had to focus heavily on her blocking.
During drills in practice, she said she would sometimes ask to switch out of the setting role so she would have more time to work on her play at the net.
On offense, she had to learn to set to the entire roster of hitters, rather than just the group she lined up with during her previous rotation.
“We were worried of who is going to take (Spear’s) spot, or how the other girls would react, but we adjusted very well,” senior Mayda Garcia said. “(Lopez) puts the sets where we want them. She’s been amazing at her job. I’m so thankful that she’s been there and never given up on us.”
Hitting off sets from Lopez for a second consecutive season, Garcia said she sees a more confident player, and that their chemistry has improved.
An offseason of summer camps and work with club teams has made Lopez a stronger technical player, and with time she’s seen herself earn the trust of her teammates. Before anyone calls the play, she and the hitters already know what they’re running.
“A lot of the girls, especially the older girls, really respect me now,” Lopez said. “They say, ‘You’re the leader out there. You’re going out there and taking over the team, and running the offense really well.’ It’s something I haven’t noticed. I just do it.”
Rowe will need the confidence and leadership of those experienced players tonight as it tries to surpass the round of the playoffs that has typically proven to be a roadblock for Valley teams.
The biggest edge the Lady Warriors have is that six players on the varsity roster have been to this stage before, in a three-game loss to San Antonio Churchill in 2013. They’ve seen the height of the opposing players and the speed of the offenses that they run.
Luna called the first experience overwhelming, and Lopez acknowledged that Rowe is the underdog. But the Lady Warriors believe they are capable of pulling out the win.
“We learned that we could play at that level, if we really work hard enough to do it,” Garcia said. “We’ll have to match their level and just fight to the end, and play the best game we’ve ever played.”
CLASS 6A REGIONAL SEMIFINAL
McALLEN MEMORIAL VS. SAN ANTONIO O’CONNOR
WHERE: Alamo Convention Center, San Antonio
WHEN: Friday, 6 p.m.
RECORDS: McAllen Memorial (35-7); San Antonio O’Connor (34-16)
GAME NOTES: After ranking among the Lady Mustangs’ leaders in kills for most of the season, senior Allie Nitsch has given way to her freshman sister, Lanie, during the team’s playoff run. Lanie has 40 kills during the team’s three playoff games. … That total is bested only by senior Draik Banks, who has 46 kills so far this postseason. She’s had more than a dozen kills in all three games after hitting that mark just twice during the 39-game regular season. … Junior setter Taylor Marburger has been the driving force behind Memorial’s offense, picking up 632 assists, or 85.9 percent of the team’s total. She also ranks first on the team with 57 aces and second with 210 digs. … While Allie Nitsch, Banks and Marburger make up an experienced core, the strong freshman duo of Lanie Nistch and Joceylnn Everage have been difference makers for the Lady Mustangs. Everage ranks fourth on the team with 130 kills, while Lanie leads Memorial with 215 kills and 58 blocks. … Banks ranks just behind Lanie in both categories, with 212 kills and 57 blocks. … The Lady Mustangs’ senior class is on the deepest run of their careers. The team was knocked out in the first round of the playoffs in 2012 and 2013 before making it to the second round last season. … McAllen Memorial has played only one San Antonio team this season, picking up a 2-0 win against Highlands during a preseason tournament. … Senior Aleya Campos leads the Lady Mustangs with 253 digs. … Although Valley teams usually face a size disadvantage against San Antonio opponents, Memorial boasts taller frontline players than O’Connor. Banks and Lanie Nitsch are both listed at 6-foot, while O’Connor’s tallest player stands 5-foot-10, according to Maxpreps. … Before this season, O’Connor had been bounced from the playoffs in the second round each of the past four years.
-Greg Luca
CLASS 6A REGIONAL SEMIFINAL
McALLEN ROWE VS. NEW BRAUNFELS CANYON
WHERE: Alamo Convention Center, San Antonio
WHEN: Friday, 8 p.m.
RECORDS: McAllen Rowe (41-8); New Braunfels Canyon (35-12)
GAME NOTES: McAllen Rowe is playing in the regional semifinals for the second time in three seasons, having suffered a 25-21, 25-19, 25-22 loss to San Antonio Churchill in 2013. … The Lady Warriors are led by reigning All-Valley Player of the Year Mayda Garcia, who has racked up 533 kills, 146 blocks, and 800 digs. Her kills and blocks totals are the best on the team. … Rowe also has three other players with more than 200 kills: Ryela Rodriguez (208), Amanda Martinez (226) and Sophia Luna (321). … Rowe’s primary setter is Vanessa Lopez, who has taken over the just in all six rotations since Deanna Spear suffered a season ending injury in late September. … On defense, the Lady Warriors are led by sophomore libero Kayla Cruz, who has 884 digs and has turned an area of projected weakness into another of Rowe’s many strengths. … Canyon’s primary frontline players — Brooke Kanas, Kristen Payne and Skyler Clark — stand 6-foot-1, 5-foot-10, and 5-foot-8, according to Maxpreps. Rowe has two players taller than 5-foot-7: Rodriguez (5-9) and and Garcia (5-9).
–Greg Luca