McALLEN — Eliane Silberman’s return to the McAllen Memorial volleyball team cannot be overstated.
Returning to an already impressive and powerful offense, the 6-foot middle hitter/blocker adds an offensive power punch and an intimidating defensive presence, not to mention leadership and experience.
All of those skills were on display Monday as the Mustangs rolled over visiting Edcouch-Elsa 25-17, 25-16, 25-20 in just over an hour in their UIL Class 5A bi-district playoff matchup.
The Mustangs will play the winner of tonight’s Mission Veterans-Corpus Christi Veterans opening-round match in the next round.
Silberman tallied 12 kills, second only to teammate Amare Hernandez, who finished with 15. The senior has missed most of the season while playing for the Peruvian Under-18 national team. She returned to play last week and, while still working with her setters to perfect the timing on the quick middle attacks, connected enough times help the Mustangs easily advance.
“(Eliane) was on the Sweet 16 team here and just her presence along is big for us,” Memorial head coach Ashley Doffing said. “I was super proud of what she was doing (with her national team) and she came back for us when it counts.”
Silberman, Hernandez and Madisyn Sosa, who added eight kills, along with a deep group of hitters, add a wide variety of offensive options for Memorial. During one rally, Silberman made her aggressive approach and, as E-E’s defense adjusted for the oncoming quick attack, setter Gabriella Torres used the approach as a diversion and dumped the ball over for an easy point.
Silberman, who left during the summer to join the national team, said she has worked with both Torres and setter Madison Amaya in the past and felt it wouldn’t take long to get their connection back. While at times the timing wasn’t there as the match progressed, it was clear the connection was quickly growing.
“We knew with a couple of changes and a little bit of practice things would get back to as usual,” Silberman said. “It’s so important to have a lineup with big hitter always ready at the same time. It makes the blocker on the other side unsure who is going to get what and I feel it bring so much more to this team, things we always knew we could bring.”
E-E found some success early taking the ball wide off attacks or even free balls, often times between the front and back row. However, the Mustangs adjusted and increased their effective play as the match continued.
“It’s all about team chemistry and awesome passing,” Doffing said. “When there’s a great pass, we trust that our offense will put it away.”
On many occasions Silberman, Hernandez or Sosa would explode on the ball, hitting defenders with thunderous body shots or splitting defenders who could only look on at the attack.
Junior Vida Ybarra — who at one point this season was third in the state in Class 5A in kills and has carried E-E offensively this year — was mostly ineffective due to the Memorial attacks. When she did have opportunities, however, she made the best of them.
Unfortunately for the Yellow Jackets, however, those opportunities were not often and the Jackets didn’t find a rhythm most of the night.