McALLEN — There’s no secret to what McAllen Memorial is going to do come match time. It’s OK because they’re not trying to hide it.
Swing. Swing hard. Swing a lot. If one arm gets tires, use the other, but keep swinging. The goal — beat the opponent into submission.
The Mustangs unleashed their full arsenal Saturday, defeating city and district rival McAllen High in four sets 25-17, 25-16, 21-25, 29-27 at McAllen Memorial to improve to 3-0 in District 31-5A, tied atop the standings with Sharyland High. McHi dropped to 2-1.
Memorial’s Amare Hernandez slugged her way to 20 kills, and teammates Leah Garcia and Madisyn Sosa managed nine kills apiece.
The Mustangs established their dominance at home but the young McHi team did anything but submit, sending shockwaves through their opponents and jumping out to a 10-1 lead in the fourth set.
“I call them our hiccups,” Memorial head coach Ashley Doffing said. “I was proud of the girls, though, for fighting their way out of that and regrouping.”
After a dominant two-set lead, they had a little time to figure out those kinks. But they may have taken a bit too long, dropping the third set.
Doffing told her team after the third set “they disrespected us on our home court. It’s time for us to do the same thing. This isn’t going five (sets).”
It almost did, however as both teams squandered set point down the stretch in the fourth set.
The teams were tied at 27 when Kaitlin Martin came up with the biggest block of the day for a 28-27 lead. Hernandez flowed with a thunderous Thor-like kill to secure the win. Prior to the final points, McHi’s Katherine Williamson and Memorial’s Garcia put on and above-the-net a display of power. Garcia got the final of the tradeoff, slamming back-to-back back sets from Madison Amaya to set up Memorial for its final run. After the match, the Mustangs celebrated Amaya’s 1,000th career assist.
“I was so mad at the beginning of the fourth set, and it was burning my soul to sit and watch on the bench,” Garcia said. “I had to wait to get in but I knew where I wanted to put the ball and just went blank. I knew what we needed.”
Williamson paced McHi with 12 kills, but Memorial won the attack category with 50 kills compared to 32 for the Bulldogs. Gabby Estringel and Kayla Salinas each added six kills for McHi.
Memorial had a strong day defensively at the net. Alicia Ziegler tallied four of her team’s 10 total blocks.
Sosa was also a menace from behind the service line, collecting a pair of aces but, more importantly, keeping the McHi serve/receive off balance with her powerful jump serve that drops quickly and heavily to the floor, keeping defenses unable to attack successfully off of it.
With Sosa serving in the second set, Memorial went on a 7-0 run to grab a 22-13 lead en route to the 2-0 set advantage.
“I’ve been in the gym working a lot on my serve and that topspin,” Sosa said. “From the beginning, I felt like it was going to be a good game.
“Hopefully this shows people what we are made of and what we can do.”
hmiller@the monitor.com