San Benito loses season opener in three games to host Harbor
High, 25-14, 25-20, 25-21
SANTA CRUZ
In their first game of the season, under a different, defensive-minded approach, the San Benito girls volleyball team fell to Harbor High in three games (25-14, 25-20, 25-21) Tuesday night in Santa Cruz. But head coach Dean Askanas, who knows his young team will take its lumps in the preseason, saw plenty of positives.
After switching the lineup in the second game, Askanas said his Lady ‘Balers began to click and started to play effectively.
“I was really pleased with the way they played. Harbor is a pretty good team,” Askanas said. “There were a lot of good things and a lot of things we can improve upon.”
The coach highlighted the play of senior Chelsea Freitas, who played outside, and noted her strong performance by playing “super-hard” defensively (12 digs), while also keeping the ball in play on offense – two areas Askanas felt will be needed this season in order for San Benito to be successful.
“For us, it’s gonna be on defense this year,” Askanas said, “and for our offense to not let us down.”
Askanas also pinpointed the play of his three captains, including Justine Hunter (14 digs), Shayna Nakata (18 digs) and Sam Klauer (six digs).
Hunter, he said, was great moving the ball around, while Nakata and Klauer contributed stellar defensive performances.
Harbor, though, which was led at the setter position by Karissa Cook, who’ll be attending Stanford next year on a volleyball scholarship, was “a little bigger and hit harder” than San Benito in the end, however.
“We’re just gonna have to keep improving offensively,” Askanas said. “We have to put the ball down more times.”
Askanas said his team needs to work on positioning and serve-receive, among other things, while at the net, the head coach seeks improvement from his players in reading the hitter.
Said Askanas, “In order for us to improve, we need to pick up the hard hit and the tip.”
The Lady ‘Balers will seek improvement this weekend when they take to the 13-team Notre Dame-Salinas volleyball tournament, which will be played at both Notre Dame and Palma. San Benito will open with Carmel at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, while Aptos is also positioned in the team’s bracket.
“I don’t want us to take moral victories,” Askanas said. “But I see that we’re playing very hard and we have the potential to win, and I expect to start seeing wins on Saturday.”
JV/FROSH:
Coach Askanas said that both the San Benito junior varsity and freshman volleyball teams defeated Harbor Tuesday in Santa Cruz, although no scores were reported.
