The No. 6 San Benito Lady Balers sweated out every point and
hustled every minute of a nearly two-hour match in an eventual
five-game upset (20-25, 25-19, 25-20, 20-25, 15-12) over No. 3
Evergreen Valley in the quarterfinals Saturday in Watsonville.
WATSONVILLE
There’s nothing like a tense five-game match with a berth to the Central Coast Section semifinals on the line.
The No. 6 San Benito Lady Balers sweated out every point and hustled every minute of a nearly two-hour match in an eventual five-game upset (20-25, 25-19, 25-20, 20-25, 15-12) over No. 3 Evergreen Valley in the quarterfinals Saturday in Watsonville.
“They played great, they played hard. It was just a great match,” Balers head coach Dean Askanas said.
Each school enjoyed a first-round bye, and each came into the match with fresh legs in the teams’ second meeting of the year — the Cougars defeated the Balers in four sets back in September.
After a back-and-forth beginning to the opening set, the Cougars began to roll away with the momentum behind the authoritative kills of Inanna Eshoo and Trisha Dittbenner, leading by as many as seven points deep into the first set.
The Cougars’ hot start continued into the second set, building a 6-1 advantage and leading to a Balers’ timeout.
“They just needed to settle down,” Askanas said. “We were making too many consistent errors. We said, ‘if the girl in front of you makes an error, then you can’t make an error, whether it’s serving or it’s hitting.’ You have to keep us alive and moving.”
After the brief moment to regroup, the Balers responded with an edge and proceeded to embark on a 9-0 run, which included three kills from senior Emily Tonascia, who from that point on had her way at the net.
“She was out of her chicken today,” Askanas said.
The Balers never trailed again in the second set on their way to evening the match at 1-1. Tonascia finished the second set with five kills and had a season-high 23 for the match.
“Everybody started to get a little more on fire,” Tonascia said. “The first game we didn’t seem to be here. But it clicked and its was like, ‘oh, we are at a volleyball game, maybe we should start winning.'”
With momentum fully on their side, the Balers put together another convincing win in the third set, building an early lead on the heels of another extended 9-1 run. However, the Cougars battled to within one at 21-20, but senior Jessica Meade poured down three straight kills to help the Balers secure the game.
Not wanting their season to end, the Cougars dictated fourth-set play, leading for its entirety to force a fifth and deciding set.
A 4-1 Baler lead quickly evaporated as the Cougars put together a mini-run to even things up at 5-5. A towering block by senior Kelsie Asp, who then pin-pointed a kill down the right line on the next point, gave the Balers a 10-6 lead.
“She came through really big today,” Askanas said of Asp, who finished with seven kills.
The lead shrank to one at 13-12 before a Tonascia kill and a Sam Klauer point put the match to rest.
“We hadn’t been to a fifth game this whole season and we just had to get it,” Tonascia said. “In practice we had been talking about how we had been playing up to a certain point and then giving up. But today, we found that fight.”
Klauer finished with 11 kills and 35 digs, while Meade contributed 12 kills from her outside hitter position. Senior setter Alisha Cornick, who played the entire match, had a remarkable 52 assists.
The Balers will face second-seeded Menlo-Atherton (20-7) on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at Watsonville High School. The two teams met up in early September at Spikefest I, where the Bears beat the Balers in two games (26-24, 25-20).
Menlo-Atherton defeated Gilroy during Saturday’s quarterfinal round in three games (25-8, 25-7, 25-20).
