KEVIN NARRO | Staff Writer
HARLINGEN —Tuesday night’s penultimate non-district match between Los Fresnos and Harlingen South had the feel, sights and play of a district match.
But it was just another non-district game.
With the new six-team District 32-6A, coaches were thrown into a bind, scrambling for games at the back end of the non-district portion of their schedules. Tuesday was an example of the unorthodox non-district schedule teams have had to endure this season.
Los Fresnos will play San Benito on Saturday, and South will meet Weslaco East, which now is in District 31-6A. On Tuesday, the Lady Falcons make a trip back to South for their district opener.
Tuesday was a warmup for everyone in attendance on what is to come in league play. The night, however, belonged to the Lady Falcons, as they swept the Lady Hawks 25-8, 25-17, 25-20, improving their record to 25-6.
“We didn’t have anyone else to play, we are in a six-team district, and when you have that it is hard to get games when everyone else is already playing district games,” Los Fresnos coach Becky Woods said. “We couldn’t go outside of the (Rio Grande) Valley and that makes it tough, and on Saturday we play San Benito. It’s frustrating to play a district team before district, but if we didn’t do it, we wouldn’t have had a game to play and we would have three open dates in a row, and we can’t do that.”
The Lady Falcons came out swinging during the first set, led by Isis Delgado, who checked in with a team-high 22 digs on the night.
Sandra Salazar finished with 11 kills, Jasmin Garcia notched 10 kills and Sarah Villarreal fed the offense with 42 assists.
“It was good to see the kids in an environment like tonight,” South coach Anissa Lucio said. “It will help us get better. We need to finish strong, and that is just one final hurdle we need to overcome, but we have done it before so I fully believe in the girls to finish games. It is just a matter of us being consistent.”
The Lady Hawks went toe-to-toe with Los Fresnos during both the second and third sets. Every left hook South threw, Los Fresnos had an answer.
South’s Mikela Mireles led the offense with 16 kills, Mya Aguirre had 13 assists and Allyah Guevara finished with 11 assists.
“I told the girls to keep things positive, and to focus on our strengths and to keep the ball in play. If we can do those things we will be OK,” Lucio said. “Our girls have come a long way, they really understand what it takes to get to 25 points, and we have seen that progression from the start of the season till now.”