BROWNSVILLE — Brownsville Veterans Memorial made Sharyland Pioneer work for it early, but the Diamondbacks eventually shook off the Chargers to advance to the area round of the Class 5A playoffs.
The Diamondbacks won the Class 5A bi-district meeting 25-23, 25-16, 25-16 on Monday night at Brownsville Veterans.
Sharyland Pioneer closed out the match impressively during the second and third sets. The Diamondbacks built double-digit leads early in both sets thanks to kills from Itzel Hernandez, and Scarlet Verjel. The pair and other hitters were constantly set up by Aleena Zuniga, or Tera Schumacher.
Hernandez and Verjel led the Diamondbacks with 11 and 10 kills respectively. Zuniga and Schumacher combined for 35 assists and 12 kills.
Libero Florencia Curiel hardly missed an opportunity for a dig, as well as the rest of the defense in the second and third sets. Curiel finished with 21 digs, Izabella Cano had 20 and Hailey Botello also pulled off 20 digs.
Diamondbacks head coach Laura Cavazos said her team found a rhythm and control of the match after a hard-fought first set.
Brownsville Veterans twice held four-point leads in the extremely competitive forcing Sharyland Pioneer to call timeouts. The Diamondbacks went on a 6-0 run after the second timeout to go up 22-20 and eventually win the set.
“We weren’t really able to get our middles going, our connection was not there and I think our pins were trying their best,” Cavazos said of the first set. “There was some really long rallies in that game. They were just picking everything up, so we really needed to dig down deep and be aggressive as possible.”
Brownsville Veterans senior hitters Graciela Avila and Montserrat De Los Santos were key in helping the Chargers to an early lead, along with fellow seniors Kassandra Garcia, Makayla Lerma and Paulina Ramirez. The middle blockers also were terrific against the strong Diamondbacks hitters.
The Chargers (27-19, 13-5) made it to the playoffs with a late push by beating Brownsville Pace and Edcouch-Elsa in District 32-5A.
Sharyland Pioneer (37-6, 15-3), the No. 2 seed out of District 31-5A, faces Victoria West in the area round after the Victoria school defeated La Joya Palmview.
“All season long, we have been coming back and pushing through,” Cavazos said. “We are a young team, so I think that we need to stay focused. I think they are handling the pressure well right now. We just need to make sure we take care of business on our side.”
