Pioneer seeks first trip to Sweet 16

Sharyland Pioneer has a .738 winning percentage since the 2014-15 high school volleyball season. That’s 283 wins and 100 losses — or about 28-10 every year since the program’s inception.

That’s equivalent to 119 wins in a 162-game Major League Baseball schedule — the major league record is just 116 wins.

It’s also just about 12 wins in a 16-game NFL season. Super Bowl-caliber numbers.

As impressive as it is, the professional teams that accomplished those numbers did so in just a single year.

Pioneer has done it, literally, forever. Pioneer head coach Laura Cavazos likes those numbers and facts. She should. She’s the biggest reason for them, every year since Pioneer opened in 2014, the same year Cavazos became the face of Diamondbacks volleyball.

“Opening a new program was a dream of mine and something I just couldn’t turn down,” Cavazos said. “I knew that great things were going to happen with this and in this community.”

Now, the Diamondbacks (39-6) are looking to add to that percentage and make their first trip to the UIL Class 5A Sweet 16 (a previous story incorrectly stated they reached the Sweet 16 once before) today when they face District 29-5A champion Corpus Christi Flour Bluff at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Falfurrias Jr. High in a Region IV-5A quarterfinal. Pioneer’s 39 wins is a school record, surpassing the 37 wins two seasons ago.

Sharyland High and McAllen Memorial will play at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at McAllen Memorial in another regional quarterfinal for a trip to the Sweet 16.

Flour Bluff (31-9) has defeated Pioneer in each of the past three seasons, eliminating them from the postseason. The Hornets already have dispatched another District 31-5A team, sweeping McAllen High on Friday.

While Flour Bluff is led by a super all-everything middle, junior Maggie Croft, Pioneer is led by … well, just about everyone:

— Sophomore Scarlet Verjel leads with 3.0 kills per set.

—Sophomore Aleena Zuniga leads with a .317 hitting percentage.

—Freshman Itzel Hernandez is the top blocker with 41.

—Junior Florencia Curiel tops the defense at 4.0 digs per set.

—Senior Tera Schumacher leads the team in assists and aces.

—Freshman Izabella Cano and sophomore Hailey Botello also contribute heavily in aces and receptions.

“It has been a total, complete team this year and it has been amazing how everybody contributes, even those that don’t hit the court,” Cavazos said. “We knew we had potential and talent, and we wanted to get that young talent up to par at this certain level, and over the past couple games they’ve been showing they can be great and able to compete in a big way. They are ready.”

While those girls lead the team in those specific categories, on any given night those names and categories can be switched around and still work together as precise and smoothly as an orchestra. It’s a team by all definitions of the word — just how Cavazos has directed the team since those first days. She and her team are one and the same on the court.

Cavazos said she realized the girls were reaching their potential for the first time during a match at McAllen Memorial as the Diamondbacks swept the Mustangs. Schumacher led the team with 16 kills on a sky-high .536 hitting percentage. Overall, the Diamondbacks tallied 42 kills on .255 hitting and minimized Memorial’s high-flying attack to just 21 kills and a -.009 hitting percentage.

“I was taken aback by how they were so locked in and focused, and the way our passing was just out of this world,” Cavazos said. “Everyone was so confident in the serve-receive and passing, the girls knew that they would just go up and swing and not care.”

Cavazos said that one of the team’s analytics regarding serve-receive was at a season-high during that game, and moving forward it kept hitting that high mark and pushing the boundary higher.

“When our passing was on, when our game was on, it changed our mindset,” Cavazos said. “Our passers know it’s not just about hitting but contributing to the success of the game and the season.”

Pioneer struggled during its first set against Brownsville Veterans in the bi-district round. That’s when the team showed another side of what it could do and turned the poor start into an explosive ending with a 25-23, 25-16, 25-16 sweep of the Chargers.

“They took complete control,” Cavazos said. “There was another level of maturity and physicality, and they showed to me they could play in very tough situations. It proved to me they had grown in a way they could compete at that level without being shaken.”

Now they face Croft and the Hornets for a fourth straight year with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line.

“I’d love to be there,” Cavazos said of reaching the next round. “The only thing we can do is just try to contain her. But our middles are ready. They are looking forward to doing that, and they are up to the challenge.”

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