Los Fresnos plays host to Harlingen South in regional quarterfinals

A trip to San Antonio awaits the winner of today’s 7 p.m. Class 5A regional quarterfinal volleyball match be-tween the Los Fresnos Lady Falcons and the Harlingen South Lady Hawks.

The No. 1 Lady Falcons (35-2), District 32-5A champions, are playing at home for the third time in this season’s playoffs. Unranked South (22-7), the District 31-5A runner-up, eliminated No. 2 Sharyland in four games during the area playoffs Friday to scuttle projections of a showdown between the top two ranked teams in the Rio Grande Valley.

Los Fresnos coach Becky Woods said she was not entirely surprised by South’s victory over Sharyland.

“Sharyland is a tough team to beat, and South has a volleyball program that has a lot of tradition and their girls play with a lot of heart,” Woods said. “Sometimes, those things will win you a match (against a favored opponent).

“I’m proud of my girls, and I’m proud of South’s girls, too,” she added. “Yes, I know one team has to lose, but I see both teams as winners for making it this far (in the playoffs).”

In its two previous playoff matches at home, Los Fresnos defeated Edinburg Economedes 25-13, 25-10, 30-28 and McAllen High 25-16, 25-21, 25-15.

So far in the postseason, South prevailed over Rivera 25-17, 18-25, 25-23, 21-25, 17-15 prior to its 22-25, 26-24, 25-16, 25-19 victory over Sharyland.

“Against Sharyland, our girls followed the game plan to a ‘T’ and they executed it perfectly,” South coach Lupe Garza said. “We’re going to have to do the same thing against Los Fresnos.

“(Having reached this level of the playoffs,) our girls are believing that they can win,” she added. “The biggest improvement I’ve seen with our team (since the start of the season) has been mental-wise.

“Los Fresnos is a tough team that is very explosive (offensively) and very good on defense. We’ll need to be on top of our game.”

The South-Los Fresnos winner advances to Friday’s Region IV-5A Tournament semifinals at St. Mary’s Univer-sity in San Antonio to face either District 26-5A champion San Antonio Johnson or District 26-5A champion Corpus Christi King.

The Lady Falcons are trying to advance to the Region IV-5A Tournament for the first time since moving up to Class 5A in 2004. They reached the regional semifinal level of the 4A playoffs several times in the 1990s. South last advanced to the Region IV-5A Tournament in 2008.

“There’s going to be a lot of competitiveness on the court (against South),” Woods said. “It’s going to be a tough match. We have to come out on fire and stay on fire. Regardless if we win or lose a game, we have to stay focused the entire match.”

Roy Hess writes for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him via e-mail at rhess@brownsvilleherald.com.