MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
EDINBURG — Rome coach Angie Garcia understands that whatever success her team enjoyed throughout non-district play is almost irrelevant now. That’s why she took a moment Tuesday to reiterate the importance of each District 31-5A match, as her team trailed Edinburg Vela on the road.
“I just told them, ‘We haven’t fought all this time since summer, all this hard work you put in, to just let it go without a fight,’” she said. “‘You go down with a fight. If you fight, you’ll pull out a win.’”
No. 5 Roma scratched and clawed its way back to fend off Edinburg Vela, 25-17, 22-25, 16-25, 25-15, 15-11, to improve to 23-5 overall, 2-0 in district.
“These matches are a ton more critical. Now they really matter,” Garcia said. “Everything you did, if you won tournaments, pre-district (matches), it doesn’t matter in the end. It’s these games that help you out (with postseason admittance and seeding). It’s these games that place you in the end. These games weigh a lot.”
The Lady Gladiators certainly played with that urgency in Game 4, taking a 7-3 lead off a tip from Luz Gonzalez (5 kills, 2 digs, 8 blocks). Vela’s best chance of tying the game came at 8-7, following a Roma service error. But the Lady Gladiators gradually pulled away, taking a 15-10 advantage that forced Vela (17-11, 1-1) to call for time.
Ale Galindo, who finished with 16 assists, set up the final two kills for Roma in that game, feeding Kassandra Rocha (10 kills, 20 digs, 2 blocks) and Annette Jasso (4 kills, 8 digs, 6 blocks, 1 ace) as the Lady Gladiators forced a decisive fifth game.
The lead changed hands three times before Galindo’s kill inched Roma ahead 8-6. The Lady Gladiators were never threatened the rest of the way, with Rocha’s ace giving them an 11-8 lead and then Kassandra Saenz (4 aces, 17 digs) delivering an ace of her own to seal the comeback.
“It was definitely a big scare,” Garcia said. “We knew coming here that they were a good team and that it was going to be a hard match. I can’t take anything away from Vela. They’re a good team and they did great today. In the end, we just got it done.”
The rally helped erase memories of Games 2 and 3, when Vela was largely in control. It also helped that Roma committed back-to-back errors that helped the Lady SaberCats even it at one game apiece. In Game 3, however, Vela raced out to a 7-2 lead, thanks in part to a back-row kill from Jaida Muhammad (17 kills, 23 digs) off an assist from Anna Garza (27 assists), that set the tone.
Muhammad shouldered the offensive load, along with Larissa Navarro (11 kills, 14 digs), and the defense did its part, led by Nicole Castaneda (9 blocks, 4 kills) and Nicole Avalar (13 kills, 4 blocks), to make it competitive.
“We played a very good team today and I told the girls, ‘This is what district’s going to look like,’” Vela coach Araceli Ortega. “And that’s something that’s new for us because we’re out of our Edinburg element, so we’re kind of getting to know these teams in this district. I think it’s going to be like that for everybody in our district.”
Roma’s Sol Moreno had a team-high 53 digs to go with two kills and two aces. Teammate Yosalin Barajas added 21 digs, 13 assists, three kills, one ace and one block.
Miranda Washington finished with a match-high 56 digs for Vela.