To say the San Benito Lady ’Hounds’ volleyball season was special wouldn’t even be close to enough.

San Benito’s campaign was spectacular, as it went 24-9 on the year and captured the program’s first-ever bi-district championship with a win over Edinburg.

And because of the landmark season, the Lady ’Hounds ruled in the return of the Valley Morning Star’s All-Area volleyball team.

Kassandra Sanchez (also the 32-5A MVP) was named the All-Area Most Valuable Player while San Benito’s Ruby Medina is the area’s top coach.

Not a bad way to cap a terrific season.

“To win this is an honor,” said Sanchez, a middle blocker for the Lady ’Hounds. “This being my senior year, I worked so hard and it’s paid off.”

Sanchez was simply brilliant all year.

Another in a recent line of San Benito multi-sport standouts, Sanchez boomed 701 kills and had 203 blocks to pace San Benito to a second-place finish in 32-5A.

“It was very special since it was our senior year,” Sanchez said of the historic year. “The underclassmen played for us seniors and everybody worked hard as a team. And we had fun at the same time.”

Medina saw Sanchez for four years on the court and had high praise for her senior leader.

“She’s an all-around athlete,” Medina said of Sanchez. “I moved her up as a freshman and she grew each season. She was very loyal to the program and she’s just awesome.

She’s a tremendous athlete and I told her she had the talent to play Division-I volleyball.”

Sanchez has already verbally committed to Texas-Pan American to play for the Lady Broncs and will sign next week.

“It’s awesome,” Sanchez said of signing with the D-I program. “Being able to accomplish one thing and now I’m gonna have to work harder to take it up a notch to play at the next level.”

In a year that had so many team accomplishments, it’s only fitting that Sanchez said it’s the team camaraderie she’ll remember most along with that elusive playoff victory.

“My teammates and winning that playoff game that hadn’t been done before,” Sanchez said. “We never played a home playoff game, so it was pretty exciting.”

Medina, a San Benito grad who’s coached her hometown team for the past nine years, knew this team would be special after a little seasoning.

“We started a little shaky since we had a couple of new setters,” Medina said. “I told the girls we’d be OK, and we devoted a lot of the time to the setters.

After that, I felt the team built a lot of confidence. It started from there and things fell into place. I was very proud of out setters for adjusting and we played well.”

San Benito started to win matches and was a mainstay in the Valley Freedom Newspapers’ Top 10 for the most part. It finished at No. 6.

“We were doing so well and I felt that the team chemistry was a big part of that,” Medina said. “The girls felt very comfortable with the team we had. No bitterness or anything like that. They were very united and that helped a lot this year.”

The magic came with a playoff win against Edinburg at home. San Benito won a five-game thriller to win its first-ever playoff match. They fell to Laredo Alexander in area.

“T

hey wanted to make history and they always said that. They had their minds set to what they wanted to do,” Medina said. “That was one of our goals from the beginning. It was a tough match against Edinburg (five games), but our girls wanted it so bad. I was very excited and proud of the girls. They deserved it.”

Meanwhile, Ri

o Hondo’s Samantha Atkinson was named the area’s top newcomer.

Atkinson was all over the court for a very young Lady Bobcats team at setter and outside hitter. The sophomore also nabbed 32-3A’s all-district newcomer award.

“Samantha’s very

knowledgeable and was a good team leader for us,” Rio Hondo coach Danette Atkinson said. “I hardly ever pulled her off the court and she could play any position you wanted her to play.

She’s got great court perception, and she’s a really great setter too,” her coach added.

On a team full of sophomores, coach Atkinson is hopeful the experienced gained will lead to an improved year in 2012.

“I know she and t

he rest of the team is really gonna do a lot better next year,” she said.

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