In the past couple of days, Metro-area volleyball teams have made their return to the court for the beginning of practice for the new season.
That includes Los Fresnos and Brownsville Veterans Memorial, who both earned district titles last season going unbeaten in district play along the way and each advanced two rounds in the playoffs.
Los Fresnos, winner of four straight district titles, was excited to start Tuesday morning with a lot of experience returning from last year’s squad, including Giselle Ibarra and Isis Delgado, the team’s libero and All-Metro Defensive Player of the Year last season.
“It’s really exciting, I’m really glad we’re back,” said Ibarra, a senior outside hitter for the Lady Falcons. “It’s a whole new environment because a lot of our girls (graduated) and a lot of new girls came in … so I’m excited to see what happens. We already know each other, so I think we’ll bond together.
“We need to work hard, keep pushing each other and play our best.”
The Lady Falcons have seven returning players, but are without the height in the middle they’ve had in recent years. Their emphasis in early practices is to play up to their strengths.
“We’re focusing on serving and defense … they’re going to be able to get to every ball,” Los Fresnos coach Becky Woods said. “We don’t have any height, so we have to make up for it on defense. We’re going to have to be ready to pick everything up.”
Los Fresnos has a strong group of juniors and quickness is something it will rely on this season. Good hitting and excellent serving are also strengths, but will be a focus of early practices to further improve before the season gets underway.
The Lady Falcons are trying to reach their fifth straight district title, something that hasn’t been done in the program in Woods’ tenure. To do so, she is trying to make sure her team begins to jell together in practices during the next couple weeks.
“We need to have the new kids fit in and get everyone on the same page,” she said.
Brownsville Veterans, the District 32-5A champion last year, began practice Wednesday a day later than most. But the Lady Chargers were happy to get to work.
“I think it’s going to be fun, everyone is very excited to come back,” Brownsville Veterans senior middle blocker Rebecca Cardenas said. “We started a day late, but I think that pushes us harder to get better faster and ready for our season.
“We’re really excited and I think they will show on the court.”
Brownsville Veterans coach Lisa Mares was happy about the turnout on the first day of practice and the enthusiasm within the program.
“I’m really excited for the numbers,” she said. “We have a good group of girls — seven seniors and a junior — a lot of experience returning. I feel this is the year we can go really far, playoff wise, because of the seniors, but it depends on the girls and their commitment … how badly they want it.”
The Lady Chargers are placing their attention on their skill workouts, conditioning and weight training in the next couple days before they can determine which girls fit on varsity and three other sub varsity teams.
Even with a senior laden team, Brownsville Veterans wants to make sure its chemistry is better to help achieve its goals.
“We need to make sure we have camaraderie between all our teams,” Mares said. “We need to be more together, not just on the court, but off the court. They felt they didn’t achieve enough (last season).”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.