Los Fresnos survives in four sets

EDINBURG - All season long, the Los Fresnos Lady Falcons have played like a team with more experience than it actually has.

The Falcons, with only two seniors on the roster, did again Tuesday night, outlasting Edinburg Economedes 25-14, 13-25, 25-21, 25-23 in a bi-district match. Senior Kayla Weaver had 17 kills and 22 digs for the Lady Falcons,who entered the postseason as the District 32-5A champion. However, they trailed 15-19 at one point in the fourth game before rallying to win in front of a rowdy postseason crowd at Economedes, which got 25 assists, 13 kills and 17 points from Kayla Silva.

"That's an excellent way to start the postseason," a relieved Los Fresnos coach Becky Woods said.

For Economedes, it was certainly the opposite.

The Lady Jaguars, who were the No. 4 team from District 31-5A, had a chance to even the fourth and final set at 24, but they served into the net to end the match. Economedes coach Araceli Ortega said her team shouldn't remember Tuesday for the disappointing ending, but for how it fought against a district champ.

She sounded confident that her young team would learn from what happened and how its season finished.

"I just think that it's a good experience for them. And the fact that they're playing the No. 1 team and taking it to the end of each game... I'm very proud of them," Ortega said. "I know it's hard and I know they're feeling it, and I know they wanted it to the end but it was unfortunate it ended the way it did."

After the first two games, it was hard to think that the final one would be determined the way it was. The Lady Falcons opened the night with an easy 11-point win and appeared to have the Lady Jaguars guessing. But in Game 2, Economedes rebounded to win easily, setting up two final dramatic games.

But in the end, it was the late Los Fresnos rally that got the Lady Falcons through to the next round of the postseason.

"We just told them they needed to believe," Woods said. "Just believe in themselves and believe in their teammates. We told them they needed to play to win and not worry about anything.

"They're young. They have a lot of growing to do, but we're going to do OK."  

Brian Sandalow covers high school sports for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4436 or via e-mail at bsandalow@themonitor.com.