By Joel Langton
The 830 Times
The Del Rio Queens’ pink shirts for October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month simply say “Fight.” It’s a word the Queens have taken to heart, turning a four-match September losing streak into a two-match winning streak in October.
It took plenty of fight Tuesday to overcome Laredo LBJ. The Queens won the opening set 25-18, then pushed the final two sets into extra points to complete a three-set sweep, 26-24 and 27-25.
The victory improved Del Rio to 15-10 overall and 3-6 in District 30-6A. LBJ dropped to 17-14 overall and 3-6 in district, according to the Laredo Morning Times’ scoreboard.
The Queens began their October turnaround with a 3-1 road victory over Southwest on Friday, winning 26-24, 25-22, 16-25 and 25-22 to end their four-match slide.
Tuesday’s win also evened the season series with LBJ, after the Lady Wolves defeated Del Rio 3-2 in their Sept. 12 meeting.
The gym was full of screaming fans, led by athletic director Frenchey McCrea, who thrust himself into the role of head volleyball cheerleader.
The opening set remained close at 20-17 before the Queens caught fire and pulled away from the Lady Wolves.
The second set was more of a battle royale. Del Rio trailed 24-23 before reeling off three consecutive points to claim the set, 26-24.
In the third set, the Queens gave the Lady Wolves a head start, falling behind 10-5 before pulling even at 18-18. LBJ moved back ahead 20-18, but Del Rio battled back and eventually claimed the set and match, 27-25.
With five district matches remaining, the Queens have pushed themselves back into the playoff race.
Learning from losses
Queens coach Angelica Rivera said the second-round turnaround grew out of tough losses during the first round.
“We’ve had a lot of time to watch film. We’ve had a lot of time to think about our moments and our game,” Rivera said. “This is everybody that we should have beat from the beginning. So now the girls want it even more because we saw it, we watched it on film, we watched ourselves, and the girls know what they can do better.”
Rivera said the team’s six seniors are entering their final five district matches and potentially their final competitive volleyball games.
She has implemented some coaching tweaks for a team that came close during the first round but struggled to finish matches.
Volleyball is a mental game, Rivera said, and the Queens have focused more on that aspect, kicking off the week with a “Mental Monday.”
“They have a journal,” Rivera said. “They write in this journal. They have an activity where they really sit there and think about their mindset for the week, and then we have goals that we started putting up,” she said, pointing toward several poster boards listing team goals in a corner of the gym. “But at the end of the day, it’s working on those little mistakes that we made, and we’ve just stuck to the same thing.”
Energized AD
While much of the work involves the mental side of volleyball, another challenge is keeping players from overthinking. That’s where the head cheerleader, also known as the athletic director, steps in.
McCrea has learned to read athletes during his 23 years of coaching and serving as athletic director.
“For me, the level of concern for me was the facial expressions on the girls’ faces. You know, we were having fun, and then all of a sudden we made a few mistakes, and it seemed like our girls were coming down a little bit, overthinking, and I knew if we could just get the energy back up, they would stop thinking and start playing volleyball,” McCrea said.
So McCrea took matters into his own hands, working to create enough noise and excitement to help the Queens regain their confidence.
His efforts have included bringing the newly named “Dad Coalition” down from the stands to cheer with their booming voices.
Tuesday, he encouraged parents to get louder, then moved down to rally the student section. At one point, he ran to his office, returned with a stack of Queens volleyball hand towels and tossed them into the stands.
“We just got all of this hype behind the girls and they are responding,” he said.
They are responding with victories over teams that beat them earlier in district play. Now the question is if the Queens can keep it up and claim a playoff spot.
In Tuesday’s junior varsity match, LBJ defeated Del Rio 25-15 and 25-22.
