MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
McALLEN — Trailing by one game to their rivals, McAllen Rowe coach Magda Canales pulled her players aside and instructed them to block out the opening set and look ahead.
“She just said everyone makes mistakes,” Rowe’s Mayda Garcia said. “You have bad games. You just have to push past it and not worry about past mistakes.”
The sixth-ranked Lady Warriors shook off a tightly contested start and bounced back with a 23-25, 25-13, 25-23, 26-24 victory Saturday against No. 4 McAllen High.
“A lot of it was communication,” Garcia said. “A lot of picking each other up. Not getting mad at each other. And we just kept our composure. We tuned out everyone and we came out with a good outcome.”
Aside from atoning from the Game 1 loss, Rowe (27-4, 2-1) also made up from losing its first game of the season to a Valley team, after being swept by McAllen Memorial on Wednesday.
Garcia led the way Saturday with 19 kills, 21 digs and eight blocks, stuffing McHi at the net. Garcia scored off a feed from Deanna Spear (17 assists, 16 digs) to go up 24-23 in Game 4. After exchanging errors, Vanessa Lopez set up (10 assists, 15 digs) set up Sophia Luna (10 kills, 8 digs, 2 blocks, 2 aces) to ice the match for Rowe, which used an 8-0 run to regain control of that game with a 13-8 lead.
“I believe it has to do with the momentum of the game, taking advantage of the fact that when we make a good play, keep building up from that play over and over,” Canales said. “I think that’s what made the difference, having that momentum.”
In Game 2, momentum swung in Rowe’s favor after jumping out to a 6-1 lead, following a kill from Garcia, courtesy of Lopez. The Lady Warriors then used an 8-3 run to even the match at one apiece, after a McHi (26-5, 2-1) service error.
The loss drew attention to the kinks the Lady Bulldogs still need to iron out early in district.
“We just need to work on our serve-receive, still,” McHi coach Paula Dodge said. “Our passing is not where it needs to be so we could run our offense. … When we can attack the ball, we’re much more successful, as long as we’re up and hitting. That’s for any team.”
The Lady Warriors received contributions across the boards from Klarissa Gomez (30 digs), Ryela Rodriguez (six kills, 12 aces), and Amanda Martinez (three kills, three blocks).
“Everyone did their job,” Canales said.
Game 3 was tied 11 times before Spear found Rodriguez on a back-row kill that gave Rowe a 20-19 advantage. The Lady Warriors never looked back, as Spear connected with Garcia on a kill to go up by two at 21-19 and 23-21. It was Lopez’s feed to Luna that gave Rowe the cushion it needed to seal the match in four.
“We just played together and that’s what helped us the most,” Garcia said.
Julia Monday (15 kills) and Dominique Pena (nine kills) helped shoulder the scoring load for McHi. Carter Helmcamp notched six kills, 5 digs, 19 assists. Alliance Amaya had 10 digs. Lexy Guisti added 14 assists, two kills and two blocks.
Hannah Bishop chipped in with seven kills, two blocks. Julissa Villarreal had nine digs and Kellie Woodin added eight digs.