Everett Alvarez was given a Welcome-to-Mattson-Gym moment on
Monday night, courtesy of the San Benito Lady Haybalers.
Hollister – Everett Alvarez was given a Welcome-to-Mattson-Gym moment on Monday night, courtesy of the San Benito Lady Haybalers.
San Benito (3-0 Tri-County Athletic League, 14-7 overall) met the Salinas high school for a league match in Hollister and cruised to an easy win in three games, taking care of Alvarez 25-8, 25-9, 25-6.
Despite holding their opponent to single digits in the three games, coach Dean Askanas highlighted the play of senior outside hitter Kelsey Jackson, who led San Benito with a season-high 13 kills.
“That’s the most impressive part,” coach Dean Askanas said. “That showed she could hit in positive numbers.
“This time, she felt it. She was making good hits. She was confident. For me, that was the most positive thing – to see Kelsey hit so well and so consistently.”
After starting the first game back and forth with Alvarez, holding just a small 7-5 lead after Jackson’s first kill of the night, the Lady ‘Balers went from an 11-7 lead to a 23-7 lead behind the serving of Justine Hunter.
Alvarez would break the scoring streak with a point of their own, but Shayna Nakata put the first game away on a service ace.
With Hunter back at the service line to start game two, the Lady ‘Balers picked up where they left off, and opened a 12-0 lead on Alvarez, a run in which Emily Kortsen contributed four of her 12 kills on the night.
At the end of the second game, Hunter was back on the service line, and finished the game with five straight points. In total, Hunter scored 28 points on service Monday.
It was much of the same in game three, where San Benito opened a 14-2 lead, and ended it with a pair of kills from Jackson.
“We started slow, a little off-kilter,” Askanas said. “But I think that was them regaining confidence after a hard weekend. After a while, they really clicked.”
On Saturday, the Lady ‘Balers were in Santa Cruz for the Harbor Invitational, where they compiled a 3-1 record.
In pool play, San Benito defeated Scotts Valley, San Francisco University High School and Madera 2-0, placing them into the Gold Division.
However, the local squad fell to Harbor in two games 25-11, 25-15.
“They’re very good, but we played so flat,” Askanas said of the Harbor match. “But we had to put it behind us and move on and that’s what we did.”
San Benito will visit Alisal on Wednesday at 6:30pm.
