Playing with energy and passion, the San Benito High girls volleyball team earned arguably its biggest victory of the season on Thursday, knocking off Notre Dame-Salinas in four sets. Game scores were 24-26, 27-25, 28-26, 26-24.
“We feed off the crowd and each other,” said senior opposite Lexi Chavarria, who delivered a number of kills at crucial moments throughout the match and finished with 10 total. “Without the energy from the crowd and from ourselves pumping each other up, I felt this game could’ve gone differently.”
The Haybalers (15-3 overall, 3-0 MBL Gabilan) are tied with Christopher for first place in league, but the general consensus is San Benito and Notre Dame (16-3, 2-1) are the two best teams in the Gabilan. The teams play again on Oct. 27 in a contest that will most likely decide the league championship.
One can only hope the rematch is every bit as good as last night’s classic. Using their raucous home crowd to their advantage, the Balers captured Game 2 in thrilling fashion. It was the pivotal game of the match; had San Benito fallen behind two games to none, it would’ve been tough to come back on the Spirits.
Notre Dame was up 25-24 when the Balers’ Marisa Villegas hit a ball that deflected off a couple of Notre Dame players before going out of bounds. The Balers celebrated the point only to see the head official initially give the point—and the game—to the Spirits. The head official didn’t see a deflection, but after a meeting with the linesperson, it was ruled the ball went off of Notre Dame.
That made it 25-all, and Chavarria stroked a kill after Annie Breger came up with two huge blocks to keep the point alive. The Spirits committed a hitting error on the next point, and San Benito had leveled the match at one game apiece. Games 3 and 4 were close as well, but not quite as nail-biting as Game 2, which featured a pulse-pounding 18 ties and 19 lead changes.
Once again, the Balers used a balanced offensive attack along with stout defensive play to prevail. Setter Kieley Hoskins (34 assists) did a magnificent job of spreading her sets to different hitters, with Villegas finishing with a team-high 16 kills to go along with 25 digs. Lauren Sabbatini had 15 kills and Haley Leifheit 11.
Libero Noel Chavarria passed well and produced a team-best 30 digs and four service aces. Once again, the Balers played with a focus and determination of a championship-caliber team. Now they’re poised to keep up their frenetic pace for the rest of the season.
“We talked about how we wanted to stay up and positive the whole game no matter if we win or lose a point,” Lexi Chavarria said. “And that’s what we did. I loved playing tonight because of the crowd and how we responded. We’re more in sync and since we’ve been playing together for a long time, we feel like this is our year.”
It shows.
