BY JON R. LAFOLLETTE | STAFF WRITER
LA JOYA —Nothing could stop the Roma volleyball team Tuesday night at Juarez Lincoln High School, not even the scoreboard.
The device malfunctioned midway through the third set of Tuesday’s bi-district volleyball game between the Lady Gladiators and Edcouch Elsa, which led to an impromptu, and lengthy, timeout.
“It’s little things that happen that you don’t plan for,” Roma coach Angie Garcia said. “We were just trying to keep the girls focused on what we were doing.”
And focused Garcia’s team remained, sweeping the Lady Yellow Jackets 25-14, 25-20, 25-22.
“I told the girls we had to come out intense,” Garcia said. “Edcouch is always a scrappy team, and we didn’t want to take any chances with them.”
Neither did senior Luz Gonzalez, who was instrumental on both sides of the net in Roma’s victory. The four-year letterman totaled 10 kills on the evening in addition to four block sand seven digs.
“I had been practicing my middle hits going down the left,” Gonzalez said. “My setters did a good job of setting my up, and I did what I knew how to do.”
Gonzalez’s teammate, Kassy Rocha was impactful as well with 10 kils, 20 digs and 3 blocks.
“We’re very fortunate to not be a one-girl team,” Garcia said. “We had some size, and we tried to use that to our advantage.”
Despite getting the sweep, Roma (28-10, 7-5 District 31-5A) overcame early deficits in all three sets, committing net errors and sending balls out of bounds.
“I kept telling the girls, ‘You’re going to give up a point, that’s fine,” Garcia said. “You have to shake it off and get back at it.”
Gonzalez echoes her coaches’ sentiments.
“We knew we were the better team, we shouldn’t be going up and down with them,” Gonzalez said. “Whenever we had the chance to take the lead, we took advantage of it.”
Roma advances to the area round will play Tuloso-Midway this weekend. Time, place and date have not been determined.
For Edcouch-Elsa, (23-17, 13-1), the loss ends what was a resilient season. After losing 10 of their first 16 games, the Lady Yellow Jackets went on to win a share of the District 32-5A title. “We lost in the best way,” coach Ofeilia Griffith said. “As a team.”