By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
The momentum continues for the Pace Lady Vikings in District 32-5A volleyball.
Having won against two favored opponents in its two previous matches, Pace prevailed 27-25, 26-24, 25-19 at Lopez on Saturday afternoon to improve to 4-3 in conference action.
Pace rallied to beat Edcouch-Elsa and Donna High in its most recent matches prior to Saturday, so climbing above the .500 mark in district felt pretty good because every team in 32-5A battles hard, Lady Vikings coach Gavin Rudder said.
An example of that was provided Saturday by the Lady Lobos (3-4).
“This match made us realize that it doesn’t matter who is on the floor (as your opponent), you’ve got to play the game,” Rudder said. “Going to extra points like we did (in the first two sets), you have to work just as hard no matter if it’s the first-place team, the last-place team or a team in the middle. It’s something that has kept our girls on their toes. We’ve fought through it (in these last three matches) and pulled through. We fought through the little runs that Lopez made today and we were able to finish the fight.”
The back-and-forth first game featured 11 ties. Pace trailed by as many as six points, 14-8, in the opening game before regaining its composure to battle back. There were late deadlocks in the score at 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25 before the Lady Vikings captured the last two points to win the opening set 27-25 after the Lady Lobos hit the ball long to make it 26-25 and then couldn’t handle a volley as the ball carried out of bounds.
Pace took the early momentum in the second game and held its biggest lead of seven points, 15-8, when the Lady Lobos hit the ball out of bounds. But the Lopez girls rallied and forged ties at 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 24. From there, a Pace kill and a net violation by the Lady Lobos provided the Lady Vikings with a 26-24 win in Game 2, setting the stage for a three-game sweep.
The score was knotted for the last time at 10 in the third game as the Lady Vikings went ahead to stay after that and won 25-19 to take the match when Lopez hit into the net on the final point.
Katie Quezada and Summer Bohn led Pace with nine kills apiece. Each had an ace. Quezada had 14 digs and Bohn had three. Also for Pace, Amanda Gomez had 15 assists and 12 digs while Kalynn Quezada had 19 digs, 15 assists and six kills. Ebony Casanova contributed 30 digs.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess