SONORA, TX-- The Sonora Lady Broncos did something that is extremely tough to do on Saturday. They won a game after an unimaginable tragedy struck their team.
Sonora beat District 4-3A rival Wall Lady Hawks in five sets just one day after torrential rain and hellish flooding from the Dry Devil’s River swept through the small community. Nine players for the Lady Broncos were affected by the flooding and six of those “pretty much lost everything,” according to head coach Judi Harris.
“This community is awesome, number one,” the first-year head coach said. “We’ve really just rallied together…[The impacted players] unfortunately weren’t able to be here tonight. Our girls have rallied to put some stuff together as far as monetary donations and material donations.”
When a natural disaster like a flood happens, it’s tough to go out and play a game without the thought of the damage and destruction creeping in. Harris was proud of the way her team maintained their focus.
“I knew it was going to be pretty tough for them to let things going on outside of these walls go,” Harris said. “They were able to come in here and focus on what we needed to do right now and, now that we’re done, we can take care of what’s going on in the community.”
Despite the rivalry between the two communities, Wall stepped up to show solidarity with their neighbors to the south. Donation bins were set up outside of the gym at Sonora High School for fans to donate items such as clothes, food and toiletries to those affected by the flood.
“We are a huge rivalry,” said Wall head coach Robynn Jones. “But with that rivalry, we have great respect. I believe Sonora has respect for Wall and Wall has respect for Sonora. That goes throughout our schools and throughout our communities...When [tragedies] happen, we just have to come together.”
Sonora took the first set 25-16 before Wall took the second and third sets 25-15 and 25-18. With their backs against the wall, Sonora stormed back to win 25-18 and 15-11 to claim the match.
“We entered that fourth set and knew we needed to end it there,” Jones said. “You’ve gotta hand it to Sonora. They played hard. The team and the community, they’ve come together after this flood and it shows. We might have went on runs, but they stayed together. They played as one the entire game.”
Leading Sonora’s comeback was their senior captain Mary Kyle Johnson with a double-double. The outside hitter finished with a team-high 10 kills with 12 digs in the win. However, Sonora saw success because they were able to get Brae Harris and Raeven Harris frequent attacks despite posting 7 kills and 4 kills respectively. Brae Harris finished with a pair of aces, as well.
“I’ve been saying it all season, we’ve gotta have more than one weapon,” Harris said. “Sometimes the other weapons aren’t firing on all cylinders. So, [Mary Kyle] is able to step up. She is our go-to girl whenever we need a point, but I love the fact that Brae can swing. When she swings, she’s more than likely getting a point.”
Sonora overcame 28 attacking errors, many of which were unforced, in the match. That many errors usually dooms a team.
“That’s good [to see],” Harris said of her team’s resiliency. “I told them this was going to be a game of ups and downs...Teaching them mentally that ups and downs are going to happen, runs are going to happen and we just can’t quit and we can’t get down on ourselves. We just have to do what we do. Once we do what we do, we’re fine.”
Johnson and Kodi Davis finished with a pair of blocks each to help the Lady Broncos defense. Leading the defense was the Harris trio of Brae, Camille and Raeven. The trio combined for 45 digs for the Lady Broncos. Raeven led the way with 17 digs. Brae and Camille each finished with 14 digs.
Sonora (14-13, 1-0) will host Brady for another district clash on Tuesday, Sept. 25. Wall falls to 1-1 in Distrcit 4-3A with a home meeting against TLCA on Tuesday.
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