Rough Night: Lady Hawks overcome slow start for victory

Harlingen South recovered after a slow start to beat the Rivera Lady Raiders in their home gym, 24-26, 25-19, 26-24, 25-11.

"We didn't play up to our potential," Harlingen South's Joslynn Benavides said. "We showed character and fought back through the whole thing and we won. It wasn't our best game, but we pulled it out."

Harlingen South coach Steve Lunsford knew his team was in for a battle and his girls found out just how tough when, during the first game, the Lady Hawks were down 24-21. The Hawks tried to recover, tying the match at 24, but two crucial shots by the Lady Hawks landed out of bounds, giving Rivera the first set victory.

"We were a little bit flat-footed in the first game," Lunsford said. "But all credit goes to Rivera because they played excellent in that first game. So we told the kids after the first game that they were just going to have to hang with them, because Rivera was playing that well."

In the second set, the Lady Hawks appeared to settle down and held a two-point lead for almost the entire frame, giving them an 18-16 lead when they began to pull away. Led by three big kills from Amanda Duran, the Lady Hawks stretched their advantage to a 23-16 lead, which the Hawks used to win the set as South's Liz Ramee (nine kills, five blocks) recorded the final kill for the win.

"I knew we had to pull together (to win)," Ramee said. "We knew they were going to have more intensity because they won the first game."

During the third set, the Lady Raiders began pulling away from the Hawks as they held a 19-14 lead, but the District 31-5A champs didn't panic. Led by Benavides (15 kills, 27 digs), South clawed its way back into the match, tying the game at 23 and eventually winning the set after a kill by Duran and a Lady Raiders 2-hit error.

Afterward, Benavides, a junior, talked about how her team overcame such a big lead in front of a feverish Raiders crowd.

"All we tell ourselves is ‘Point by point', that's how you win a volleyball game," Benavides said. " All you focus in on is that one point. You are going to outwork the other team."

During the final set, the Lady Raiders struggled to regain the level of play they had shown in the previous sets, as South recorded seven points before Rivera got on the scoreboard. The Lady Hawks never looked back during the set, maintaining their big lead and closing out the Lady Raiders with another big kill by Benavides.

"I was proud of my team, they fought hard," Rivera coach Elizabeth Avelar-Guerra said. "Harlingen South has a really good team, they have some height and they have some good hitters. I'm proud of my girls because they picked up a lot and they were aggressive. They didn't give up, they played hard all the way to the end."

The Lady Hawks now prepare to face the winner of the matchup between McAllen Rowe and Laredo Alexander, teams who faced off Tuesday night in Zapata.

"Well, we are going to see if we can't get the kids to rest (today) a little bit," Lunsford said. "Then we are going to have to see who we have as an opponent."