During the quarter-century she has been at the helm of the O’Connor High School volleyball program, Coach Yami Garcia has constantly and consistently preached to her teams that they were underdogs.

The narrative has been fueled equally by the fact the Panthers often doesn’t have a roster stocked with Division I prospects or height — prized commodities in today’s landscape of the sport — and a coach with no time for complacency.

With two trips to the UIL Class 6A state tournament and two other berths to the regional tournament since 2017, though, the yearly woe-is-us declaration has nearly evolved to where it almost comes with a grin.

The funny thing? The tag fits perfectly this season.

O’Connor defeated District 29-6A foe Brennan 25-23, 25-18, 25-21 Tuesday in a Class 6A third-round contest at Northside Sports Gym to claim a spot in this weekend’s Region IV-6A tournament.

It is the Panthers’ fifth trip to the regional tournament in the past seven seasons — and perhaps, the most unlikely.
O’Connor (30-15) faces defending Class 6A state champion Dripping Springs (47-6) at 5 p.m. Friday at the Alamo Convocation Center.

Harlan (42-5) takes on Austin Lake Travis (44-5) in the other regional semifinal contest at 7 p.m. Friday.

“I knew that I had a super inexperienced team,” Garcia said. “From beginning to now, they’ve done a 1,000 time of improvement. I think it’s just hard work, every single day, pushing from us, helping them believe in themselves. They’re deserving of where they are.”

Where the Panthers are is a far cry from where they were at this time a year ago. Back then, O’Connor was shocked in the third round by Laredo United 25-21, 25-15, 14-25, 19-25, 15-13 in Corpus Christi.

“It was a very sad way to go out,” O’Connor senior outside hitter Kendall McKee said. “The bus ride home was very emotional. Everyone was crying.”

There were tears shed again on Tuesday, but these were of joy. They represented how far the Panthers have come.

O’Connor graduated seven seniors off last year’s squad, headlined by outside hitter Kelli Fording and setter Jenna Garza. The team lost five in a row at one point and had a losing record early in the season. If that wasn’t enough, the Panthers didn’t win a district championship for the first time since 2019 and had a 51-match league winning streak snapped in the process.

The Panthers are now on a nine-match winning streak and are two wins from another trip to state.

“It definitely means more,” O’Connor senior libero Carly Chavez said. “As a senior, just going out with a bang, and getting to be in the fourth round again, it’s just touching my heart.”

Sophomores Jaylyn Tuiososopo, Jocelyn Joyner and Madison Libson combined with seniors Chavez, McKee, Laney Blake and Nevaeh Smith to guide O’Connor past Brennan, which made its deepest playoff run. O’Connor used late runs to capture all three sets.

Tuiososopo had 16 kills and three blocks. McKee had 11 kills, 15 digs and three blocks. Smith had nine kills, Libson tallied six kills, Chavez had 21 digs and Blake chipped in 20 assists, 14 digs and two aces.

“None of us knew how to cooperate because it was a completely new team,” McKee said. “But once we had team bonding, practices every morning, we came together.”

While this deep playoff run might have come as a bit of a surprise for O’Connor, it wasn’t a shock for Harlan to find itself in the regional tournament for the fourth year in a row.

On each occasion, the Hawks had to knock off district rival Warren in the third round. On Tuesday, Harlan accomplished the feat again with a 25-12, 25-13, 25-20 decision.

“We had to definitely lock in this game,” Harlan sophomore setter/middle blocker Da’Mya Mann said. “We knew it was a higher competition. We knew we had to step up from the beginning. We didn’t want to give them any leverage. We wanted to come out from the start, get on them, don’t let them have any breathing room.”

Mann teamed with junior Isabella De La Rosa to orchestrate an attack that was too much for Warren to handle. Senior Aniya Joseph, junior Thalia Yancey, Jaci Hall and Karrington Crawford led the way.

“I think this game is super exciting and it’s always big competition because we know each other so well,” Yancey said of Harlan playing Warren for the 12th time in four seasons. “This is honestly a game that we look forward to. We’re constantly talking about keeping high energy with them.”

Paced by seniors Natalia Rodriguez (10 kills) and Grace Owens (six kills) at the net and juniors Justine Flores (19 digs) and Azalea DeLeon (12 digs) on the back row, Warren appeared poised to extend the match when it rallied for a 20-19 lead in the third set. But Harlan regrouped and closed on a 6-1 run to prevail, increasing its winning streak to 24 straight.

“It’s kind of us coming back together, and knowing that we have control on our side, so just to calm down the game and play how we know how to play,” Yancey said.

terrence@terrencesports.com
Twitter: @sa_terrence1