San Isidro head volleyball coach Elva Smith’s Tigers have never been scouted as much as this year.
That’s what happens when wins come in bunches.
San Isidro (34-4) advanced to the UIL Class 1A Regional Semifinals, also known as the Sweet 16, on Tuesday after a thrilling 23-25, 23-25, 25-18, 26-24, 15-12 comeback over D’Hanis. The Tigers will play at 1 p.m. Friday against Fayetteville (42-2).
“This is a big deal for us,” said Smith, in her eighth year at the Tigers’ helm. “I’m honored to have done this with these girls.”
Senior Mia Alvarado paced the comeback charge with career-high 30 kills and five blocks. Teammate Alexandra Garcia added 14 kills and setter Nicole Delgado tallied 26 assists.
“When the girls have fun, they can take over,” Smith said. “Mia and Nicole have this work ethic and special communication on the court. Nicole has been our quarterback all season and she and Mia don’t even have to talk to each other, they know what they’re going to do.”
Delgado missed a couple games due to illness during a magnificent season. Without her directing traffic, the Tigers dropped both matches, each to Laredo St. Augstine. Their other two losses came to Brownsville Pace and Brownsville St. Joseph.
Smith and the Tigers don’t shy away from the Goliaths, beating 4A schools Hidalgo, La Feria and Port Isabel. They also hung with Class 5A Pace, falling 25-15, 25-21. The Vikings finished 17-9 during the year and advanced to the Class 5A playoffs.
The Tigers have won 19 straight matches.
“I knew if we could keep up with Port Isabel and Pace, and then after we played in the St. Augustine tournament, I knew nothing could stop us,” Smith said. “I wanted to get in with PSJA or teams like Vela or Sharyland but I’m thinking they look at us and think, ‘You’re just a 1A school.’ But we feel that we are at that level.”
Alvarado injured her hitting side shoulder during the first set but said the adrenaline “and the Ibuprofen” helped her deal with the pain. She did not practice Wednesday and was on her way to have the shoulder checked on early Thursday.
The senior star hitter said she recognized as early as the first day of practice that this could be a special year.
“I could see that there was a great bond already, even with the freshmen coming in,” she said.
She added the freshman group realized in the match against D’Hanis what that match meant, especially for the seniors.
“They had never been in the playoffs before so there were a lot of nerves, even for all of us,” she said. “But that match really opened a lot of eyes, that we could come back and that we never give up.”
Alvarado leads the team with 398 kills this season, about 3.8 kills per set. Juniors Garcia and Roma Elizondo contribute 1.8 and 1.1 kills per set, respectively. Delgado quarterbacks the offense and has tallied 5.3 assists per set for the season.
Delgado reiterated that the connection she and Alvarado has is a special one. The fact that they’ve known each other and been friends since pre-kindergarten is probably a major factor.
“We live in a small community. We go to a small school and we’ve been playing sports together and have been classmates together all our lives,” said Delgado, while sitting next to Alvarado on the 350-plus mile ride to Brenham. “We know it’s important for the community and for school and for us, being our senior year. We’ve worked hard for it since our freshman year, and as seniors we want to take is as far as we can.”