Baler volleyballers advance at CCS
After receiving a first-round bye in the Central Coast Section
playoffs, the defending CCS champion, No. 2 seeded San Benito High
volleyball team appeared poised to reclaim the title after cruising
past No. 7 seed Mt. Pleasant in the quarterfinals before advancing
to Wednesday night’s semifinal showdown against No. 3 seed
Carlmont, which took place after The Pinnacle’s press time.
A win over the Scots would put the Balers against either
league-rival Salinas or Homestead High in the championship game,
which takes place tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Independence High School in
San Jose.
Baler volleyballers advance at CCS
After receiving a first-round bye in the Central Coast Section playoffs, the defending CCS champion, No. 2 seeded San Benito High volleyball team appeared poised to reclaim the title after cruising past No. 7 seed Mt. Pleasant in the quarterfinals before advancing to Wednesday night’s semifinal showdown against No. 3 seed Carlmont, which took place after The Pinnacle’s press time.
A win over the Scots would put the Balers against either league-rival Salinas or Homestead High in the championship game, which takes place tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Independence High School in San Jose.
“There are four teams left and anyone can win it all,” said Baler coach Dean Askanas, who was asked to assess the situation before his team’s game against Carlmont. “Whoever is playing the best is going to win it all. It’s not like our level of play is worse than it was a year ago, it’s just that there are more teams that are better this year.”
During the regular season, the Balers had a 2-1 record against Homestead High and went 1-1 against the remaining teams that made the semifinals. Askanas’ biggest concerning heading into the semifinal bracket was that each of those four remaining teams beat the Balers the last time they faced each other.
“It really could go either way with any of these teams,” he said. “Last year, it just wasn’t like this. We played Mt. Pleasant in the semis and I felt pretty confident that we could get past them and fight our way in the finals.”
Prior to the Carlmont game, which took place on Wednesday night at Santa Clara High School, Askanas had his team working on ways to defend against Carlmont’s “superb hitters” as well as executing on their side of the ball.
The main player the Balers were trying to contain on Wednesday night was Justine Record, the Scot’s senior outside hitter, who will play on a Division I scholarship next year at Virginia Tech University.
“All of the teams that remain have outstanding outside hitters,” Askanas said. “Homestead’s Catherine Fisher will play at Oregon next year and Salinas’ Fabiola Castro hasn’t committed yet but she can play anywhere too.”
Fortunately, for the Balers of all the strong hitters that remained in the tournament as of Wednesday none was more dominant than Emily Kortsen, the Balers opposite hitter.
This season Kortsen, who will play at Utah State next fall, had more than 450 kills during the regular season, 256 digs, 62 blocks, 47 aces and nearly 40 assists.
In the Balers 25-10, 25-16, 25-15 win over Mt. Pleasant Kortsen had 16 kills to lead both squads on the court.
Although the road to repeat as Section champs seemed a little harder this year, Askanas believed that his team could win it all – if they played their best.
“If we play to our potential, I think that we may be more balanced than Carlmont and the other teams that our still in it,” said Askanas on Tuesday. “Carlmont has two weapons – their middle blocker and outside hitter (Record), but I think, overall, we have a few more weapons offensively and defensively.”
Although Askanas wanted to focus on the task at hand and take things one game at a time, he also knew that a trip to the finals would ensure the Balers of getting another invite into the Northern California State tournament, which gets under way next week. A year ago the Balers lost to Pleasanton’s Foothill High School in the championship game. This year, the team would like nothing more than to get back into the Nor Cal tournament and win it all.
“I can’t think that far ahead right now,” Askanas said. “Right now we have our hands full just focusing on tomorrow (Wednesday) night’s game against Carlmont.”
