With an Escalon sweep of Riverbank at the annual Dig Pink Night on Oct. 2, the Lady Cougar volleyball teams then went on the road and fell to Ripon, with all three levels taking a loss to the host Indians.
Both matches were Trans-Valley League contests and the girls started off the week strong, earning a 3-0 program win over the Lady Bruins of Riverbank.
For the varsity team, it was a 25-10, 25-15, 25-4 win on the home court.
“I think we did a good job of staying focused and consistent,” said head coach Shay Beam. “Knowing that we had Ripon coming up, we tried to practice hard and work on running a quick offense and utilizing our middles. I think we did a good job of practicing that against Riverbank.”
Leaders were Sophia Martin with 13 kills, Chloe Fraser and Claire Barkus with seven each and Peyton Houser Keaton with six.
“At the service line, Aniston Hunt and Karisa McNeil each had seven aces,” added Beam.
Wednesday, Oct. 4 it was a trip to Ripon to face off with the Lady Indians for the second round of TVL action.
“It’s no secret we didn’t play to our standard during our first match up,” noted Beam. “Wednesday we fought hard to beat Ripon but ended up losing in three, 23-25, 20-25, 14-25.”
Beam said the third set “was really just a mental game for us, something we need to work on.”
Notching five kills in the contest was Martin, while Lisa Murga had four kills and three blocks. Fraser and Barkus added three kills each.
“Serve receive struggled a little bit Wednesday but defensively Macie Vickers had 20 digs, Kenda Gwartney had seven digs, Murga and McNeil also had six digs apiece,” Beam said. “Ripon is a good team; losing to them definitely stings more than other losses.”
A busy week continued for the varsity girls, as they went to a tournament Saturday, Oct. 7 at Tokay High School.
“It’s supposed to be a pre-season ‘tune up’ so we face some bigger and really good teams,” Beam explained. “We went 1-3 with losses to Grante Bay, Roseville and Vintage from Napa. The good news is we got some sweet revenge against Turlock and beat them in two.”
The varsity will observe Senior Night on Wednesday, Oct. 11 with a ceremony starting at 6 p.m.; opponent for the evening is Hughson.
JV
The JV girls were 25-10, 25-13 winners over Riverbank on Oct. 2, paced by Marina Franzia with five aces, Lesley Cadenas with six assists and Madi Babasa with six digs.
“The girls played really well, did a great job at working together, and had lots of communication and energy,” said head coach Alyssa Cogburn.
Wednesday, on the road, the JV squad fell in straight sets to Ripon, 8-25, 21-25.
Cardenas had six assists and Babasa added 13 digs.
“We did not start out mentally prepared,” admitted the coach. “We started playing much better in the second set, but it was just too late. It was a great learning experience for us, and we hope to apply what we learned to the rest of our season.”
FRESHMEN
The youngest Lady Cougars crafted a 25-15, 25-14 win over Riverbank on the home court Monday, Oct. 2. Violet DaSilva had five aces, Samari Webster nine assists, with six kills from Haven MacKinnon and eight digs by Brynn Caton. Anabella Azevedo logged a 2.6 serve receive percentage.
At Ripon, the girls battled but fell 18-25, 16-25. Elizabeth Castro had two aces, Webster added five assists and DaSilva logged 10 digs. Also, Emma Keiss contributed three kills.
“Ou communication was a lot better this week which was great,” said head coach Morgan Gomez. “However, we really struggled to execute later in the week. When we have opportunities, we need to take advantage of that and apply pressure and we just had a hard time doing that as a team consistently.”
The coach said the young players missed a lot of serves as “momentum-building moments” and played scared with their hits and tipped a lot.
“We worked on more strategic plays an discussed our fears and how to overcome them together so we have high hopes,” the coach said.
