SAN BENITO — For some reason, the San Benito Lady Greyhounds don’t seem to perform well in third sets of their matches.
On Tuesday against Harlingen South, the Lady ’Hounds had a chance to sweep the Lady Hawks but fell apart in Game 3.
Fortunately, they were able to right the ship in the fourth set and walked away with a win. However, the team’s inability to close things out left San Benito head coach Ruby Medina somewhat irritated.
On Saturday against Brownsville Hanna, it was like déjà vu as the Lady ’Hounds took a commanding 2-0 advantage but couldn’t close things out in Game 3.
However, as they did against South, the Lady ’Hounds got their act together in Game 4 and got an important win over Hanna, 25-21, 25-17, 22-25, 25-15.
With the victory, San Benito improved to 3-2 in District 32-6A. Meanwhile, the loss was the Lady Golden Eagles’ second in a row as they fell to 3-2.
As she was on Tuesday, Coach Media was pleased to get the win but not happy with the way her team was unable to close out Hanna in three sets.
“Service errors hurt us this time around,” Medina said. “I told them that we can’t win if we don’t have the serves. It shouldn’t be that difficult but they, of course, put too much pressure on themselves and over think things and then miss the serve.
“It’s something that we work on in practice, but come game time it’s just… We just can’t keep doing that to ourselves because every time we miss a serve, it gives our opponents a point.”
Despite their Game 3 breakdown, the Lady ’Hounds dominated the contest as they came out of the gate firing behind strong hitting and solid defense.
Alysa Naranjo led the way with 21 kills while Crystal Ibarra was close behind with 15. Helping to set up the strikers was Ariel Garcia, who had 23 assists, and libero Larisa Garcia did a tremendous job of neutralizing Hanna’s big hitters as she had 35 digs.
The Lady ’Hounds came out strong early in Game 3 as well, but the Lady Golden Eagles fought back behind big hits shots by Halle Penrod, Tabitha Fernandez and Laure Webb.
Hanna also took advantage of San Benito’s numerous serving errors and hung on to win the set 25-22.
However, the Lady ’Hounds got their service miscues under control in the fourth set – committing only two errors – and the difference was huge as they took control early and simply wore Hanna down.
“This was a big win for us,” Medina said. “But like I told the girls, they are very capable of winning a lot of games if they put their minds to it. I’m not taking anything away from Hanna, they are a great team. However, we just played batter today.”
Up next for the Lady ’Hounds is an away game at Weslaco High on Tuesday.
