Lady Apaches break district ‘curse’

GONZALES — It’s been over three years since a district win but the Gonzales Lady Apaches were able to grab one during their district opener on Tuesday, besting the Austin Eastside Memorial Panthers in three sets, (25-20, 25-16, 25-18).

“We needed a W,” Gonzales head coach Bernice Voigt said. “We’ve been struggling and we needed a W to start the new season.”

The Lady Apaches compete in District 27-4A with Austin Eastside, Navarro, Wimberley and La Vernia. The latter three were playoff teams last season and are expected to become playoff contenders again, so Gonzales was looking to knock off Austin Eastside to be one of the four teams that advance to the postseason.

Tuesday was the first step.

“I think they realize tonight that even though the tempo was kind of slow that we need to pick it up and want to be able to compete,” Voigt said. “After they got the win, [we realized] we have a chance to go to the playoffs. They’re excited. I’m excited.”

The first two sets the Lady Apaches had some troubles serving, even after trying to take advantage of multiple violations and errors by the visiting Panthers. In the first and second set, the Lady Apaches accumulated seven serve errors each. Gonzales only had two in the third set.

“We gave them too many points the first two games,” Voigt explained. “We work on serving each day, we’ll just have to keep on working on serving and serve receive.”

On the attacking end, Analise Longoria and Alex James came up with kills up front while Maura Garcia had a score in the second set from the back row. Garcia also came away with a few aces in the game.

“We passed better and we communicated a little bit better,” Voigt noticed. “I don’t know that we actually attacked the ball very well but we did some passing and we played as a team better.”

The Lady Apaches were also able to close out the set better which is something they’ve worked on over the season. In the final set, up 18-17, the Lady Apaches were able to go on a 7-1 run with four kills from James and an ace from Garcia.

After the district win, Voigt noted the excitement in the locker room from the athletes.

“It was like ‘wow we did it.’ ‘The curse is broken!’” she laughed. “At least, that’s what they said.”

Gonzales (1-0) is open today and will play on Tuesday against the Navarro Lady Panthers in Geronimo, with varsity scheduled to play at 6 p.m.