PHARR — During the first set of the District 31-6A volleyball opener between PSJA North and Edinburg Vela, it was clear if one team “clicked” before the other, it might be able to ride that momentum all the way to victory.
With North leading 10-6 in the first set, something did click, but for Vela — and the SaberCats rode that momentum to a 25-17, 25-16, 25-22 victory over the Raiders on Tuesday at the PSJA North gym.
Throughout the match, Vela played more confident, going from a conservative start to being much more of the aggressor. Led by multiple bigs in the middle, a defense that looked more comfortable as the match progressed and a freshman setter who had an electric night serving, the SaberCats rolled through the first two sets, finishing the first set on a 19-7 run.
“I think both were a little nervous before the match, with this first big district game,” Vela head coach Araceli Ortega said. “We knew they would be aggressive and both of us wanted to start 1-0 in district.”
PSJA North struggled on the service end with several errors in each set. Vela capitalized on it as juniors Fey Vasquez and Samantha Villalobos and sophomore Danika Verdooren increased the number of attacks while senior libero Maria Sanchez held the defense steady in the back row.
“We needed to take advantage of those errors and we were trying to get around that block. We have a lot of hitters and we want to spread the ball around more and move the block,” Ortega said. “Some matches it just takes us a little longer to get going.”
The second set was nearly a mirror image of the first. Tied at 6, Vela went on a 19-10 run. During that set, freshman Abby Zamora collected five of her team-high 19 points from the service line in one run, three of them unable to be returned and one that hit the tape and dribbled over. It was during that run that the Vela offense seemed to find their groove with multiple attackers making approaches to the net in effort to keep the Raiders off balance.
The Raiders trailed in the third set 24-14 before something also clicked with them and they went on an eight-point run before Vela was able to put the match away.
“We got stuck in a couple rotations we couldn’t get out of,” Ortega said. “We need to get mentally strong. We have young girls on the team but when it gets tough we need to see who could come through. It’s a tough district.”