Lady Falcons sweep into regional semifinals

LOS FRESNOS — The comeback was just the start.

The Los Fresnos Lady Falcons battled back from an eight-point hole in the third game and advanced to the regional tournament with a 25-21, 25-22, 25-22 victory over the Harlingen South Lady Hawks on Tuesday at a packed Falcons gym.

It’s the first time in school history the Falcons are going to the regional semifinals at the Class 5A level. They will play San Antonio Johnson on Friday at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.

"Oh my god," Ileah Ortiz said. "That’s one thing, oh my god."

The Lady Falcons (36-2) were down 18-10 and 21-15 in the third game before winning nine points in a row to completely take control. The Lady Hawks staved off elimination for one point to make it 24-22, but that was it.

On the next point, sophomore Kaylah Zepeda killed the ball in the right-hand corner and the celebration was on in Los Fresnos.

"This is something we worked for all year," Los Fresnos coach Becky Woods said. "This is our dream, and we want to keep it going."

The comeback wasn’t all that surprising, at least not to the Lady Falcons. It’s what they’ve been doing all season, and it’s what they do every day in practice. The varsity gives the junior varsity 15 or so points per game, and they’re expected to still win the match.

If they don’t, they run. They generally do, though. And it happened yet again Tuesday night.

"We’ve done that all year," Woods said. "That’s just something we work on, every day we do that.

"And it paid off," Woods added.

For South (25-8), the team that wasn’t expected to even get this far, it was tough to be so close and fall short, but it was more than proud of what it accomplished.

"I’m proud of the girls," South coach Lupe Garza said. "We weren’t supposed to be here … We just made too many simple mistakes."

That’s what especially hurt the Lady Hawks in the back-and-forth first two games, where no team had a lead larger than five points. The second game went the same, but like the first, the Lady Falcons simply found enough at the end to pull through.

"Someone had to (lose), someone had to come out on the short end of the stick," Garza said. "And it was us."

While that was the reaction for the Hawks, for the Falcons, it was just one big party.

"I was ecstatic," Woods said of her reaction after the final point. "It was one of those ‘wow’ moments."

Key for the Lady Falcons where Hayley Weaver, who had five kills, three blocks, an ace, nine digs and 28 assists. Caitlin Lindsay added four kills, five digs, a block and an assist. Ortiz had 20 digs and two aces.

But that’s just for this one. Los Fresnos knows there’s another one Friday and a state-ranked Johnson awaiting.

No rest of the weary. There’s practice Wednesday.

"Oh yeah," Woods said. "We hit it (back on Wednesday)." 

Todd Orodenker covers sports for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via e-mail at torodenker@brownsvilleherald.com. Follow him on Twitter @ToddO243.