SAN JUAN — High school volleyball teams have already played 40 or more matches this season, most of those teams playing 11 or 13 of them within their respectful districts.
At least two of those districts are waiting until Tuesday — the final day of the regular season — to crown a district champion.
PSJA High defeated Edinburg North in District 31-6A, and both McAllen Memorial and Sharyland Pioneer won their matches in District 31-5A, setting up some big regular-season finales.
PSJA AT EDINBURG HIGH
PSJA will travel to Edinburg for a 7 p.m. matchup Tuesday as the Bears and Bobcats face off in what’s grown to be an intense rivalry. The Bears beat Edinburg in five sets the first time the teams met.
PSJA is 14-1 in district, while Edinburg is 13-2. The Bears won the first meeting between the two at PSJA in five sets.
If Edinburg wins, the teams will either flip a coin or play one more match to decide the playoff seeding. PSJA hasn’t won a district volleyball title since 1995. This is head coach Carolina Cuellar’s fourth season leading the program. The Bears missed the playoffs her first year but made the playoffs the previous three years, including this year.
Cuellar said the biggest thing her squad will be facing Tuesday is “a hostile environment,” but she has been preparing her team to be ready.
“We know what to expect. We remember how it was with the loud music and the play-by-play and all that stuff from last year,” Cuellar said. “This year we’ve done a better job preparing mentally and a majority of my drills are mental drills. In the offseason, they work on skills but during the regular season it’s about mental toughness.”
Cuellar said they put a playlist together that heckles the girls at 6 a.m. practice, preparing them for Tuesday’s match.
“It’s loud and they are yelling and heckling the girls and they can’t hear me but they know if they make errors we are running,” Cuellar said. “We want to recognize the atmosphere, and we will not be bothered by it and use it to our advantage.”
Since losing to Edinburg North the first time they played, PSJA High has dropped only three sets — two to Edinburg and one to Edinburg Economedes.
In Saturday’s sweep over North, the Bears’ Jocelyn Serna led the offensive attack with a team-high 14 kills while Johanna Montelongo added six.
SHARYLAND PIONEER AT McALLEN MEMORIAL
During her season debut Saturday, McAllen Memorial’s Eliane Silberman registered nine kills, six blocks and a pair of aces during Memorial’s four-set win over McAllen Rowe.
The Monitor’s 2020 All-Area Volleyball Middle Hitter/Blocker of the Year was cleared by the UIL earlier this week to join her team after missing all of the season up until this week while playing with the Under-18 Peruvian National Team in the World Championships.
The first time these two star-studded squads battled this season, Pioneer — led by all-everything setter Natalie Reyes, middle hitters Lorelai Hill and Jordan Bravo, and a host of others — collected the four-set victory during a match determined by offensive firepower and a battle of wills.
Another highlight-film matchup is once again expected as both team go into the District 31-5A match with 11-2 records. Memorial lost once against McAllen High and the other against Pioneer, while both of Pioneer’s losses have come from McAllen Rowe, in three sets each time.
Memorial is led offensively by The Monitor’s 2020 All-Area Volleyball Newcomer of the Year, Amare Hernandez. The big hitter can be a game changer in any matchup, and when Memorial has Silberman and Hernandez together on the front row it can be an intimidating view, both offensively and defensively, for the opponent.
Pioneer defeated PSJA Memorial in three sets Saturday as Thalia Ochoa led the Diamondbacks (34-4 overall) during their final tuneup before Tuesday’s rematch with McAllen Memorial.
Both games — PSJA High at Edinburg High and Sharyland Pioneer at McAllen Memorial — will be played at 7 p.m Tuesday.