Harlingen South faces tall task vs. national power Austin Westlake

HARLINGEN - Harlingen South returns to San Antonio this week in one of the most expected annual trips by a Rio Grande Valley team.

The Lady Hawks, the only remaining local squad in the University Interscholastic volleyball playoffs, take on Austin Westlake in the regional semifinals at 8 tonight at St. Mary's University in San Antonio.

It is their fourth trip in the last five years to the regional tournament since joining the Class 5A ranks in 2004. One year before that the Lady Hawks advanced to the state final four as a Class 4A squad, a feat yet to be duplicated by a Valley program.

The Lady Hawks, admittedly huge underdogs tonight, travel back to San Antonio with a mental toughness they lacked early in the year.

"We are a lot mentally stronger without question," Lady Hawks coach Steve Lunsford said. "The kids are now taking on challenges they may have shied away from earlier in the season. They enjoy playing the top teams."

Yes, they were winning most of their matches early in the season but their 0-3 record against McAllen Rowe and collapse against Sharyland in which they had won the first two games and were up 22-12 in the third game were somewhat curious.

"That was an eye-opener with Sharyland because we realized we had to work hard for every point and start recognizing that every point is important," Lunsford said. "I really think that was where that mental toughness began to grow and develop."

The team is in agreement with the coach. Maybe it had to do with the fact that they are a young team, but they admitted they didn't always play their best volleyball early on.

"When we played (Rowe) we didn't have any mental toughness at all," the Lady Hawks' Ariel Guevara said. "Now I think we would be more confident when we played them."

Further testing the Lady Hawks was a loss to an upstart Edinburg High team during the first round of district play. The Lady Hawks were in unfamiliar territory - underdogs.

"We just pulled together after that loss and realized we had to push harder and play to our potential," said Lady Hawks middle blocker Camille Water, who went down with injury during the Lady Hawks' area round match against Laredo Alexander.

Since that loss to Edinburg, South (29-6) stormed back to win the District 31-5A championship and won 11 in a row, including their regional quarterfinal win over Eagle Pass in which they won the first two games but needed five to pull out the victory.

It seemed that non-district Sharyland match was a distant memory, and the Lady Hawks will test their mental toughness against Austin Westlake tonight.

"We are going to go into the match confident because of all the hard matches we played," the Lady Hawks' Dolma Diaz said.

Peter Rasmussen covers high school volleyball for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4448.