A trip to Sonora and a game at home both went in the loss column for Escalon’s varsity volleyball girls.
They opened up Trans-Valley League play on Tuesday, Sept. 9 at Sonora.
“Unfortunately, we fell in three and although they were relatively close matches, our girls got outhustled,” said head coach Shay Beam. “We need to find some consistency and our defense really struggled Tuesday.”
Scores were 25-19, 25-20, 25-20 in favor of host Sonora.
“The good thing about league is we play every team twice and the next time we face Sonora it’ll be on our home court so I’m already looking forward to that match up,” Beam said. “Notably, though, Chloe Green had eight kills and Emma Strong had seven.”
Aniston Hunt had 20 assists on the night.
Thursday, Sept. 11, the girls were on their home court, hosting Hilmar in TVL action.
“We came out a different team,” said Beam. “We worked hard, we had energy and we took the first two sets away from Hilmar.”
But the Escalon team tired in set three and couldn’t quite push through to end the match. Hilmar took the third set and then got on a roll, winning the next two to defeat Escalon in the 3-2 marathon contest.
The Lady Cougars won 25-22 and 25-18 in the first two sets, then fell to Hilmar 21-25, 20-25, 13-15.
“We ended up losing in a tough five set match but the girls looked the best they have in a while,” the coach pointed out. “I hope we can play like that for the remainder of the season. Our defense played very, very well on Thursday.”
Strong and Emma Rangel each had 16 digs, Brynn Caton and Hunt had 11 apiece.
“We knew we’d have to serve tough and our girls did just that,” said Beam. “Brynn had six aces, Haven MacKinnon and Aniston had four aces each. Our outsides had an outstanding night in the first few sets, Strong had 22 kills and Green had 20.”
At the net against Hilmar, Marissa Terry and Green each had three blocks.
This week, the girls were scheduled to host Hughson in league play and take on Enochs in non-league action.
JV/FRESHMEN
The lower levels for the volleyball program each split their TVL contests this past week.
The JV girls won 2-1 on the road at Sonora on Sept. 9, bouncing back from an 18-25 loss in the first set to win the next two, 25-23, 15-10. On the home court, they battled on Thursday night but fell 2-0 to Hilmar, 21-25, 23-25.
The freshmen, meanwhile, lost on the road at Sonora in straight sets, 18-25, 13-25.
They came back to get a win on the home court Thursday against Hilmar, winning 25-8, 25-8.
