It was a back-and-forth five-set thriller in the opening night of District 31-5A volleyball between to of the best teams in the Valley in Edinburg. Sharyland Pioneer defeated Edinburg Vela 25-18, 22-25, 16-25, 25-22, 15-11 on Tuesday night at Vela.Sharyland Pioneer senior Aleena Zuniga started the fifth set on fire from the service line. Zuniga helped the Diamondbacks take a 7-0 lead to begin the deciding set.
“I flipped it back for her to be our first server, so she can set the tone for us,” Sharyland Pioneer head coach Kandi Helle said. “She went out there and did it. She was serving on another level. That is what we needed. We needed to get that cushion and we needed to stay consistent and finish the game.”
The cushion would not last long as Vela fought back to make it 7-5. Helle took a time out to settle her team down.
“I knew that if we could just control our passes, we have a really good back row defense, that we would be fine,” Helle said. The Diamondbacks were fine as they would keep the SaberCats at arm’s length and start district 1-0.
The Diamondbacks won a nail-biter fourth set 25-22 with their backs against the wall after Edinburg Vela really took it to them in the second and third set.
“I told them to get back to how we play,” Helle said going into the fourth set. “We know that we have the two best middles and if we can consistently run our two middles nobody can hang with us and that is what we did, especially with Scarlet [Verjel]. She was really able to get in and transition off. As long as we are able to get our back row to control the passes, our setters did a great job of feeding our middles when they could – if they couldn’t – or needed to mix it up, our other hitters were ready.”
Pioneer made more adjustments and they needed to do so after Edinburg Vela settled in the match. SaberCats junior Savanah Rivera was fantastic at the net and her serving was pivotal in the SaberCats taking the third set.Edinburg Vela also had great performances by senior setter Lauren Hanson, senior Ameryss Gonzalez, junior Abryella Ysquierdo and junior Maddie Leudeker, to name a few.
Verjel led Pioneer in kills with 21, Zuniga had 12, Elle Hill had 9 and so did Ava Saenz. Hailey Botello dropped 22 assists and Izabella Cano had 32 digs.Sharyland Pioneer returns to District 31-5A volleyball action at 7 p.m. next Tuesday, the 26th, against PSJA Memorial at home. Edinburg Vela has two weeks off of... Click here to read full article
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