|
Only have a minute? Listen instead
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Discipline and consistency have been a trademark over several years for the Sharyland Pioneer Diamondbacks.
There’s no reason to think this year, or any year anytime soon, will be any different.
The Diamondbacks continued their strong start to the season, improving to 19-2 on the year by easily defeating Los Fresnos, Brownsville Veterans and Mercedes for their second straight day with a 3-0 record during Day 2 of pool play at the Sharyland ISD Varsity Invitational Volleyball Tournament at Pioneer High School.
Twenty-four teams are competing in six pools – three at Pioneer and three at Sharyland High. The gold, silver and bronze brackets single-elimination tournament begins at 8 a.m. today at Sharyland High with the championship matches scheduled for 2 p.m. on the three courts. In the championship bracket, McAllen High will play Brownsville Rivera at 8 a.m., Los Fresnos will play CC London at 9 a.m., Sharyland will play Edinburg Vela at 10 a.m. and Pioneer will face Edinburg High at 11 a.m.
Sophomore Aleena Santiago and senior Tera Schumacher combined for 15 service points, three aces and five kills in the second set and the Diamondbacks’ defense slowed – but didn’t completely stop – Los Fresnos’ Shiloh Jones, one of the Valley’s biggest hitters. But the Diamondbacks’ defense, multiple options offensively and aggressive and efficient serving was too much for the visiting Falcons to overcome as Pioneer claimed a 25-14, 25-10 victory in their first match of the day.
The Diamondbacks also chalked up five aces in the first set, keeping Jones and the tall hitters of Los Fresnos away from the pins.
“I thought we did a great job on the service line today and kept them off balance,” head coach Laura Cavazos said. “That helped our offense to execute a little easier. We knew they had tough servers and powerful hitters.”
While Schumacher is the go-to on offense, Pioneer distributed the ball to all of its hitters, giving them more one-on-one opportunities against the block.
“If you have one go-to hitter all the time, it doesn’t make it necessarily easy for your team to be successful, so we want to make sure everybody in the front row has the opportunity to swing and be in the best possible situation,” Cavazos said. “They’ve all stepped up the middle hitters, the pin hitters, and when they do that it makes for a fun offense.
“We have a young team and we’re not where we want to be yet, but I think we are on the path to get there. We have definitely made great strides. They are catching on, eager to learn and we are improving every single game on the court.”
In the Silver Bracket, it will be Mercedes vs. Corpus Christi Ray at 8 a.m., Harlingen South vs. Edinburg Economedes at 9 a.m., Weslaco vs. Palmview at 10 a.m. and San Benito vs. Brownsville Lopez at 11 a.m.
The Bronze Bracket has Falfurrias vs. Donna High at 8 a.m., Harlingen High vs, Weslaco East at 9 a.m., Brownsville Hanna vs. PSJA Southwest at 10 a.m. and Brownsville Veterans vs. Donna North at 11 a.m. Semifinals for all three brackets are scheduled for noon and 1 p.m.
