Tuesday’s volleyball match between city rivals Mission Veterans and Mission High started just a bit more than 90 minutes late due to poor scheduling by host Mission.

When it finally started, the visiting Patriots did what they could to make up for the long-delayed start, getting their business done with a 25-15, 27-25, 25-16 sweep to improve to 4-0 in District 30-5A play.

The Patriots’’ win sets them up for a battle of the district’s unbeaten against Palmviewon Tuesday  if both teams win their matches on Saturday. Veterans hosts Laredo Nixon at noon and Palmview travels to PSJA High for a non-district match. Both teams are 4-0 in district and Palmview dethroned Mission Veterans as long-time defending district champions last year.

Senior Sophia Pacheco paced the Patriots highly improved attack, cranking out a game-best 18 kills and virtually being unstoppable when Veterans could put together a good pass, something they struggled with throughout the night. When Pacheco got those sets, however, she was money, often times finding a piece of empty court.

Freshman sensation Mady Perez added 12 kills and sophomore middle Delilah Cantu added 10 kills.

“Everybody needs to understand their role. If you’re not a go-to player, you have to wait for those sets,” Mission Veterans head coach Diana Lerma said. “You can’t get upset when balls are going to your go-to players and when you get your chances you have to come through. Mady and Sophia are a very good combination, and Delilah was there ready to put balls away too.

“That’s when we broke away in the first and third games, when they were all working together.”

Mission had fewer unforced errors throughout the night but both teams had long strings of sloppy play, including at the end of the second set. Mission held set point at 24-23 to tie the match at one set apiece but over the course of the final points the teams combined for a double, two service errors and an illegal rotation. Cantu then blocked a Mission attack and Patriots grabbed a 2-0 lead.

The Patriots, who seem to thrive on their organized chaos, something Lerma refers to as “jungle ball,” found their groove to kick off the third set and Mission helped with four attack errors, giving the visitors a commanding 13-4 third-set lead.

The three-headed offensive attack by Mission Veterans is something that has been on and off this season, but when it’s on, it’s effective as Pacheco and the Patriots showed Tuesday.

“My mentality was to come to the game thinking we had already won because this was a once in a lifetime thing because we haven’t played Mission in a district game in a while,” Pacheco said. “It was a big eye-opener but the key was to come in with a good mentality.”

The Patriots did exactly that. After having to wait extra long to get onto the court, they went to work right away. Perez opened with three kills in the first four points and Cantu added a quick kill in the middle and followed it up with a thunderous shot on an overpass, gifted from the Eagles. They pushed their lead to 12-5 in the first set on back-to-back shots from Pacheco.

They are so young, but they have so much talent.” Pacheco said especially about Perez and Cantu. “It helps me knowing they have my back and that they can kill the ball as well. I just wanted to keep swinging and hitting the spots on the floor.”

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