BY NATE KOTISSO | THE MONITOR
MISSION — Entering the weekend, the Mission Veterans Patriots had yet to drop a game in District 31-5A competition. Late in Saturday’s first game, Sharyland Pioneer created some doubt as to whether the streak would stand, but the Patriots held on to outlast the Diamondbacks in Game 1 and take the next two for a 26-24, 25-15, 25-16 sweep at Mission Veterans’ gym.
“We kind of relaxed a little bit in the first game, but there’s no room for relaxing in district play or anywhere else,” Mission Veterans junior Makenzie Gerlach said. “That is not what is expected of us. We’re supposed to get in and get out quickly. That’s it.”
The Patriots (25-3, 12-0) maintained control for most of Game 1. The Diamondbacks seemed to be staring up at four- or five-point deficits as the game progressed. Mission Veterans was on the brink of taking the first game with a 24-18 lead. Incredibly, Pioneer battled back to tie, forcing Mission Veterans coach Diana Lerma to call a timeout.
“One thing I was trying to get our setters to understand is that they’ll take us as far as they’re willing to go,” Lerma said. “The setters are our quarterbacks. During our little setback, our setters were getting the ball up, but they didn’t call out where the ball was going to. Because of that, our hitters weren’t sure about where they needed to go. But they still had confidence amongst each other to win it.”
The Diamondbacks (19-9, 7-4) did not recover from coming up two points short of being the first team to take a game from the Patriots.
“I know we have it in us,” Pioneer coach Laura Cavazos said. “Preparing for Mission Veterans, we knew that not only can our team take a set from them, but we could beat them. They did a good job of remaining calm and focused as Veterans had game point. They chipped away and made sure the ball didn’t hit the floor. I was proud of their effort.”
Saturday’s match for the Diamondbacks ended the most difficult week of any team in District 31-5A. Pioneer defeated second-place Laredo Nixon in a marathon five-gamer on Tuesday before going on the road to Mission Veterans.
“We had lost to Nixon the first time in three,” Cavazos said. “This time, we lost the first two games and then came back and won it in five. We most definitely wanted to use the momentum from that game and carry it over into today’s game. Specifically, we did want to improve in some areas from the last time we played Mission Veterans, and I think we did that.”