Lady Bulldogs make statement against United South

As Alexander seeks to repeat as District 30-6A champions, it opens league competition with a win over a strong United South team

One game at a time.

That’s what the Alexander volleyball team continues to remind itself.

It’s no secret that the Lady Bulldogs aim to repeat as District 30-6A champions this year. It's no secret that they are arguably the favorites to win the title again this season, too.

On Saturday, Alexander took the first step to potentially repeating as district champions as they swept a strong United South on the road. However, while it took the Lady Bulldogs just three sets to take down the Lady Panthers, it wasn’t an easy win.

“Every game for us, every district game is a big game to us,” Alexander head coach Ari Bermea-Mendoza said. “We feel we are going to get everyone’s best game. That’s how it’s been. My job as a coach is to get our kids ready for that situation.”

The first two sets were back-and-forth affairs as Alexander won Set 1, 25-22, and Set 2, 29-27. In fact, the Lady Bulldogs had to claw their way back in the first two sets to come away victorious. However, they won Set 3 pretty easily, 25-15.

In the first set, Alexander was down 14-7 at one point. It seemed as if United South would run away with the first-set victory. Yet, some solid serving by Brianna Espinoza helped the Lady Bulldogs get back into the set and they eventually won it by three points.

Then in the second set, Alexander was down 6-0 early. However, just like the first set, the Lady Bulldogs managed to come back and win the set as Andrea Nunez, Stella Evans and Bella Ramirez were dynamic in Set 2

.“We just have to keep it together as a team,” Evans said on how Alexander can build upon Saturday’s win. “We all work hard in practice. We have to feed off of that. And we must lean on each other when we need each other.”

Saturday’s win was a perfect representation of what Alexander strives to be: a complete team.

It’s no secret that the Lady Bulldogs possess some of the biggest names in Laredo volleyball this year. However, they don’t want to rely on just one superstar. They want to be a team that just gets solid production from everyone. They want to be a team filled with multiple solid contributors. And they proved that’s who they are against the Lady Panthers.

“Those are the funnest games when everyone contributes,” Bermea-Mendoza said. “They all bring something different and special. We don’t revolve around one person.”

Evans led Alexander with 16 kills while Nunez followed with 12 and two blocks. The Lady

Bulldogs got solid offensive production from Ramirez and Caro Elizondo, too, as they recorded seven and five kills, respectively. Then setters Emily Buitron and Amari Randez dished out 20 and 15 assists, respectively. Then on defense, Angie Garcia led with 18 digs while Espinoza had 14.

Not only did Alexander play as a team on Saturday, but it showed resilience, too – something it struggled with in non-district action.

“We learned from those situations,” Bermea-Mendoza said of the team’s non-district schedule. “We grew from them. We chose to bounce back.

“We struggled to get any momentum. Then we started to get them into errors. That became contagious, and our kids started to breathe.”

Alexander dominated on its way to a district title last season. It didn’t drop a single set within district competition in 2023. And the Lady Bulldogs want to replicate that sort of success this year.

The Navy & Gold know repeating as district champions this season won’t be an easy tack. They know they will get everyone’s best effort, and Saturday was the perfect example of such. So, as Alexander aims to repeat as league champions, its approach to do so is simple.

“Going to take it one game at a time,” Bermea-Mendoza said.

That mantra paid off on Saturday with their win over United South. Now, the Lady Bulldogs aim to move to 2-0 in district competition as they will host Del Rio at 7 p.m. Tuesday.