By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
LOS FRESNOS — It remains to be seen just how far the Los Fresnos volleyball team will advance this season in the Class 6A state playoffs.
With most of their key players back from the squad that reached the Region IV-6A Tournament one year ago, the expectations are pretty high this season for the Lady Falcons, ranked No. 2 in the Rio Grande Valley.
Whatever happens playoff-wise during the rest of current month will be determined soon enough. For the moment, the District 32-6A champion Lady Falcons (38-8) are content to have started the postseason the way they hoped with an efficient, dominating 25-12, 25-12, 25-7 bi-district victory at home Tuesday against District 31-6A fourth-place PSJA North (16-19).
“I feel this was a great way (to begin the playoffs) and open our eyes to what’s ahead of us,” said Jackie Kingsbury, a junior outside hitter for the Lady Falcons. “It helped us sharpen our skills and be ready for the next match.
“It definitely was a great way to start,” she added. “We wanted to end it in three sets and not play anything extra, and that’s how we plan on doing it for a while now. I think it was one of our better matches (of the season). With it came a lot of hard work, and now we definitely want to keep it up.”
Los Fresnos moves on to the area round of the 6A playoffs and will play later this week against District 29-6A runner-up Laredo Alexander, a 25-21, 25-19, 25-16 bi-district winner Monday against McAllen High at Roma. The details regarding that area match are scheduled to be finalized Wednesday morning.
“We had a lot of spark and a lot of fire tonight,” Lady Falcons coach Becky Woods said. “Our girls are ready to go (in the playoffs).
“We’re running on all eight cylinders now, and that’s what I want these girls to do every match,” Woods added. “We have to stay focused and play one match at a time.”
There never really appeared to be any doubt about Tuesday’s outcome. The Lady Falcons, supported by a large, vocal home crowd, jumped out to a comfortable lead during each game and cruised to victory.
There were quite a few “slam-dunk” kills by the Lady Falcons to awe and entertain their fans.
Kingsbury, Joseline Caraveo and Sam Ibarra each had 10 kills for Los Fresnos, and Caraveo had 10 total blocks and Ibarra had seven. Kingsbury added six assists.
Also for the Lady Falcons, Isis Delgado, Liz Ramirez and Gio De La Torre finished with 24, 19 and 15 digs, respectively. Delgado served two aces, and De La Torre finished with five assisted blocks. Miranda Gonzales contributed 25 assists and four assisted blocks.
Stephanie Crispin, a junior hitter, was a standout at the net for the Lady Raiders.
Woods said one of her players, Giselle Ibarra, was injured during pregame warmups and helped from the court. Woods said the player would be OK. The sophomore did not play in Tuesday’s match.