BY ADRIAN F. TREVINO
SPECIAL TO RGVSPORTS.COM
Saturday’s celestial events may have required special glasses to witness, but no such optics are required to see why the Edinburg North volleyball team shines. The Cougars shut down the Mission Eagles in straight sets 25-18, 25-23, 25-16 Saturday to remain in second place in District 31-6A.
“The first time we met them, we went 5 sets…today we frustrated them, and kept attacking as much as possible,” Edinburg North head coach Raul McCallum said.
The Cougars attack created all sorts of problems for the Eagles. Their barrage of attacks kept the Eagles out of system and minimized their first-ball opportunities. This created key opportunities for middle blocker Maya Espinoza to smash back and rebuff any returns. Etsel Ramirez’s powerful attacks from the outside allowed others to cash in as the Eagles rallied to defend. Ramirez was a force all around the court.
“She’s the heart of the team. We look to her for guidance and her attack,” McCallum said.
The Cougars game plan followed suit in the first as they jumped out to an early lead. Strong service from Ramirez’ sister, Itati Ramirez, and Natalie Avendano carried the Cougars throughout the set. The two combined to put the Cougars ahead 8-3. Espinoza was a force at the net. She challenged every shot, and smashed every one of Ramirez’s sets down the middle. Despite the attacks, the Eagles showed some fight, but they just didn’t have an answer for Espinoza.
The Eagles ended the first set with flashes of resilience. Vanessa Espinosa rallied the Eagles to within five points before Itati Ramirez’s clever dump ended the run, and the Eagles entered the second set with new confidence. That confidence and fight kept the scoring close in the second. Neither team could string points together as the set was plagued with net violations and unforced errors. This helped the Eagles stay close. Even as one team scrambled to gain an advantage, the other battled back to draw even. At 13-12, the Cougars were finally able to pull away behind the service of Francheska Pulido.
The Cougars seemed in control at 20-14 and ready to close out the set when Kayla Alaniz took the service line for the Eagles. Alaniz held serve as the Eagles clawed back to tie the set at 20. Each team took their shot only to meet again at 23. Avendano’s vicious kill thwarted the Eagles effort and carried the Cougars to a second-set victory.
The Eagles efforts must be noted. The second set was highly contested and showed why they are a playoff-contending team. The Eagles entered the afternoon tied with the Edinburg Bobcats for third place. Their season split with the Bobcats makes it likely that they will remain tied if the second round plays out exactly as the first.
“We knew we needed a win, we’re tied in third place with Edinburg, we lost in the first round with Edinburg North, so we were pushing hard to get a split today. We knew it would be a tough game,” Mission coach Edna Clemmons said.
As the season comes to a close, playoff seedings and first round opponents loom on the horizon. The Cougars will face undefeated PSJA on Tuesday and will look to split the season series and district championship.
“For us, the Bears are our biggest competition. They’re undefeated, and we want to take that title away, we want to be district champs,” Etsel Ramirez said.
