By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
All Jackie Kingsbury has ever known during her four-year varsity volleyball career at Los Fresnos is winning district championships.
That distinction became a reality again for Kingsbury and her Lady Falcon teammates on Saturday at Hanna after a 25-20, 25-17, 25-15 District 32-6A victory against the Lady Golden Eagles.
The win clinched at least a share of the 32-6A crown.
Kingsbury, a 5-foot-11 outside hitter/all-around player and NCAA Division I commit, is the only one for Los Fresnos who has been part of the Lady Falcons’ most recent four district title squads. Her teammates are getting used to the feeling of winning championships as well.
“I’m really grateful for these girls who have worked so hard to achieve it with me,” said Kingsbury of the Lady Falcons’ repeat of the district crown. “Thank you to the coaches for believing in us. All these four years of hard practices have paid off. Of course, we still want more (than just a share of the title).
“At the beginning of the season maybe there was a little doubt (about what we could do),” she added. “I think we’ve been showing great improvement and we’re getting to where we’d like to be (as far as our play).”
Los Fresnos improved to 11-0 in district with the win with three matches remaining. Third-place Hanna, still very much in line for a playoff spot, slipped to 7-4.
“I give credit to Hanna,” Los Fresnos coach Becky Woods said. “All three games were close. We knew we just needed to come out and play (to our capabilities). We knew if we won we would clinch a share of the title. We still have three remaining (district) matches, but now we can look ahead and start planning and seeing who it is we might play in the playoffs.”
Kingsbury led the Lady Falcons with 22 kills. It gave her 1,000 for her varsity career at Los Fresnos. She became the first one at the school to reach that milestone. Kingsbury also had 10 digs and one block.
Also for the Lady Falcons, Giselle Ibarra had eight kills, five blocks and five digs, while Ashley Tumlison had eight kills, 10 digs and three aces. Isis Delgado contributed 20 digs and one ace. Gio De La Torre added seven digs.
For Hanna, Ryan Wood had nine kills, three blocks and one ace, while Laren Webb contributed eight kills, six blocks and two aces. Alexa Herrera had three kills and Halle Penrod had two kills.
“I think our girls played very well in the first two sets and they hung in there,” Hanna coach Ansgar Hagemann said. “The two teams were pretty even, but we just made a few more errors. We scored on our hits, our tips and our serves, so that was very positive. We have been working a lot on blocking and I think it paid off today.”
When the two teams met in the first round of district on Sept. 20 in Los Fresnos, the Lady Falcons prevailed over the Lady Eagles 25-14, 25-16, 25-21.
District action continues Tuesday as Hanna plays host to San Benito and Los Fresnos is at home against Harlingen High.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess