By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
When the Pace Lady Vikings play the Porter Cowgirls in volleyball, there’s an added significance involved.
Not only are the teams crosstown rivals and Brownsville’s only schools in District 32-5A, the coaches of the two squads are longtime acquaintances as Pace’s Gavin Rudder once coached Porter’s Laura (Rodriguez) Fortner in college. He coached her at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College in 2006 and at the University of Hawaii at Hilo in 2007.
“(When Pace plays Porter) it’s always the match I look forward to because we know each other so well and we know each other’s game plans,” said Rudder, now in his third season as the Lady Vikings’ coach. “We have the same mentality and ideas on how to play and approach each game.”
The student prevailed over the mentor Tuesday when the teams met for a 32-5A match at Porter. The Cowgirls (10-15, 3-1 district) won 25-17, 26-24, 25-14 over the Lady Vikings (6-11, 1-3).
“I played for Gavin, and he’s an awesome coach,” said Fortner, who is in her third year coaching the Cowgirls. “You can see the things he’s done with the Pace program. A lot of the things that we teach our girls are very similar. I want to say our coaching styles are very similar. I learned from him and my other (college) coach (Bruce Atkinson), so it’s just a little funny to see us play each other because we teach our girls the same basics, the same fundamentals and our defenses are set up the same. It’s great to see the outcome of these matches between us.
“This win was actually very important to me, because the next time we play Pace will be the same night I receive my master’s degree (on Oct. 17) and I won’t be able to be at the match,” added Fortner, a former standout player at Hanna. “If we hadn’t gotten this win, I might have had to consider not going (to graduation) so I could be at that match (at Pace). It’ll be interesting the next time we play them.”
District 32-5A action continues at 2 p.m. Saturday as Pace is at home against Donna North and Porter travels to Donna High. Edcouch-Elsa is the district leader at 4-0.
CHALLENGE AHEAD: The Los Fresnos Lady Falcons are entering a crucial stretch of their District 32-6A schedule starting Saturday at noon as they play host to Rivera (16-16, 3-1). After that, the Lady Falcons (27-8, 4-0) will play at Brownsville Veterans Memorial (21-10, 4-0) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and then return home against Hanna (19-11, 3-1) at noon on Oct. 3.
Los Fresnos and those other three teams occupy the top four spots in the 32-6A standings. The past two seasons, Los Fresnos and Brownsville Veterans have shared the district title.
“Yes, these next three matches are going to be a good test for us,” Lady Falcons coach Becky Woods said. “I’m looking at them as being very competitive. We need to continue to play the game at a high level and rise to the occasion.”
IN THE MIX: The Port Isabel Lady Tarpons have won three straight matches in District 32-4A for a 3-1 record after losing their conference opener at Zapata.
The Lady Tarpons are coming off Tuesday’s 25-18, 28-26, 25-15 win at home against Grulla.
Port Isabel next plays at home at 1 p.m. Saturday against Hidalgo.
One season ago, Port Isabel, La Feria and Zapata were tri-champions in 32-4A. La Feria and Zapata are currently 32-4A co-leaders with 4-0 records.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess.
The Herald’s Metro-Area Top 5
1. Los Fresnos
2. Brownsville Veterans Memorial
3. Hanna
4. Rivera
5. Porter