By ROY HESS | The Brownsville Herald
PORT ISABEL — Sometimes, the biggest threat to team chemistry is the coach.
Los Fresnos Lady Falcons coach Becky Woods was of that opinion Friday at the eighth annual Volley at the Beach Tournament.
Port Isabel is host of the three-day, 13-team volleyball event.
Woods was feeling pretty good about things following Los Fresnos’ 25-11 opening-game victory against La Feria on Friday in the tournament’s first match of the day.
In fact, Woods was feeling so confident she made wholesale substitutions in the second game and later blamed herself for doing too much instead of just letting her team play and maintain its rhythm.
The Lady Falcons dropped the second game to La Feria 25-19, but rebounded to take the third set 15-7. It was Los Fresnos’ first of three match victories Friday on the way to claiming first place in Pool 3.
“We came out strong in the first game (against La Feria), but I made a lot of substitutions in the second game (and we lost),” Woods said. “It was my fault. I shouldn’t have made so many substitutions all at once (and it disrupted our chemistry). We had to toughen up and come back to win that third game.
“I told the girls, ‘If we make subs from now on, it’s only going to be maybe one at a time the rest of the way (before District 32-6A starts on Sept. 18),’” Woods added. “We’ve got to get all the pieces to the puzzle to fit together (in our starting lineup). District is getting closer.”
After defeating La Feria 25-11, 19-25, 15-7, Los Fresnos swept its next two matches against Corpus Christi Carroll (25-19, 25-17) and St. Joseph Academy (25-8, 25-16) to capture its pool and clinch a berth in today’s eight-team Gold
Division quarterfinals starting at 9 a.m.
For their combined three matches Friday, the Lady Falcons were led by Emma Stambaugh and Sandra Salazar (23 kills apiece), Victoria Hernandez (12 kills), Isis Delgado (28 digs) and Sarah Villarreal (77 assists).
Pool 3 runner-up Carroll also clinched a spot in the Gold Division quarterfinals along with Thursday’s pool winners Hanna and PSJA Southwest and Thursday’s pool runners-up Weslaco East and Santa Rosa.
Two other squads from the 13-team field will qualify for the Gold Division quarterfinals, while the remaining five teams will play in today’s Silver Division competition beginning at 11 a.m.
Pool 3 on Friday finished with Los Fresnos at 3-0, Carroll at 2-1, SJA at 1-2 and Monte Alto at 0-3.
In Gold Division quarterfinal matchups, it’s Hanna vs. Port Isabel, Weslaco East vs. Carroll, PSJA Southwest vs. Santa Rosa and Los Fresnos vs. La Feria.
Today’s Gold Division championship match is scheduled at 5 p.m.
Hanna defeated PSJA Southwest 21-25, 25-16, 15-10 in last year’s title match at the tournament.