Anzar High volleyball coach Tom Schatz was put in an unenviable position as his team prepared to play in the Alvarez Tournament on Oct. 10. With most of his seniors attending a college preview day at Cal State University Monterey Bay, Schatz had to call up three freshmen from the junior varsity team to field a full roster and have a couple of reserve players available to play.
Despite having most of their starting lineup in street clothes, the Hawks fared well, finishing 2-2. They beat Pioneer and Watsonville while losing to Alisal and St. Thomas More. Anzar already had two freshmen on the varsity team in Peyton Masuen and Shellyann Ford, meaning a total of five freshmen—including junior varsity call-ups Arely Campos, Sammi Vanderford and Jessa Du—received ample playing time during the tournament.
“All of the freshmen did outstanding,” Schatz said. “The JV girls showed no fear even though they had never practiced with us. It was great to see.”
The Hawks entered the week at 12-7 overall and 2-3 in the Mission Trail League. They lost their first four league contests before picking up a four-game victory against visiting Gonzales on Oct. 8. Game scores were 25-21, 24-26, 26-24, 25-23.
“We have had to make lineup changes, kids aren’t comfortable with what’s going on and it’s affecting the team,” Schatz said. “We are trying to make this work and make everyone happy and let’s see where it goes. All we can do is show up for practice and show up in the games.”
The Hawks struggled with their passing, forcing them to scramble on a number of occasions. However, they were still good enough to get the ball to their 1-2 middle blocker combo of Megan Campos and Isa Tamayo, who combined for 20 kills and 15 blocks.
“Megan and Isa really understand what’s going on and they make good decisions,” Schatz said. “They made smart plays and they’re not up there swinging as hard as they can—they’re reading the defense.”
Gonzales had no answer for Campos or Tamayo, as the two were rarely dug up or blocked. Anzar’s top outside hitter, Katia Dizon, finished with 12 kills while producing several nice digs.
Carly Offerman had seven kills, Charlotte Andersen had three service aces and Yesenia Rios finished with six kills and four blocks. Campos expressed optimism that the team could return to the level it was playing at earlier in the season.
“There was some stressful stuff happening with the team, but I think that kind of pulled us together,” she said. “Things are picking up for sure. It was nice because I felt like we were really playing well together, and hopefully that continues. Hopefully we can keep playing as a team and keep fighting like we did tonight (against Gonzales).”
Anzar avoided a near-disaster in Game 3, when it led 17-6 only to see Gonzales make a huge run and take a 20-19 lead. The teams exchanged the next several points before the Hawks took a 24-23 lead on a Tamayo kill that ended one of the longest points of the match, a 20-plus ball rally.
After Anzar committed a serving error, it won the next two points via kills from Dizon and Tamayo.
“I think we get big leads and get overconfident and let our guards down sometimes,” Campos said. “But we were able to pick it up, so that’s good.”
Campos is a late bloomer, having played on the junior varsity team in both her freshman and sophomore year. However, Campos has come on strong this season, and was particularly effective against Gonzales. Campos started playing volleyball at San Juan School, and has developed into a bona-fide talent through sheer diligence and hard work.
She’s a bit undersized for a middle, but her court awareness and deft touch allow her to place the ball with accuracy and precision. Campos vividly remembers as a freshman watching the varsity team and being amazed at the players’ talents. Now she’s followed in their footsteps.
“I remember being really excited to watch our varsity team because they were incredible,” she said. “They could smash the ball and seeing them do that made me want to be like them.”
One of Schatz’s goals is to develop a strong volleyball community within Aromas and San Juan Bautista, the two cities that have middle school teams and can act as feeder programs to Anzar. To that end, Schatz arranged Anzar to host a volleyball event for the seventh and eighth graders from Aromas School and San Juan School to play each other on Oct. 14.
The event serves a number of purposes, from bringing the volleyball community closer together and keeping things fun while ramping up the competition a bit to produce future volleyball stars.
“We’re really excited about it and trying to make it a special event for the middle schools around here,” Schatz said. “If it works out, we’ll try to do it in other sports as well.”
