Top seeded Baler girls volleyball team has high expectations for
winning first-ever CCS championship
With more experience and better team chemistry this year, the
expectations are soaring this playoff season for the San Benito
High girls volleyball team.
Top seeded Baler girls volleyball team has high expectations for winning first-ever CCS championship
With more experience and better team chemistry this year, the expectations are soaring this playoff season for the San Benito High girls volleyball team.
In fact most volleyball pundits are expecting the top-seeded Balers to win the school’s first-ever Central Coast Section title.
“I think we got a great draw (in the section tournament),” San Benito coach Dean Askanas said. “If we take care of our business, our team is as solid right now as last year’s team was.”
Last year, the Balers came inches away from winning its first-ever section title but wound up losing to Carlmont in the championship game. Despite the loss in that game, the Balers, as a result of finishing second in the section last year, qualified for the Northern California state tournament, where they advanced all the way to the semifinals before losing to Liberty High School.
This year, the team is hungry to win both tournaments – and Askanas believes his team has the tools to do so.
“The chemistry is better. The players seem to genuinely like each other. They get along well and they communicate well,” Askanas said. “I don’t know if we’re better than last year’s team. They were good too. They went 12-0 in league. This year we went 11-1 but this team can definitely win it all if it wants to.”
The difference this year seems to be the added hunger and desire to win it all that has come over the team after last year’s difficult loss in the CCS title game. With that bitter taste still in their mouths from a year ago, the Balers have seemed to play with more intensity as if they now have something to prove.
And it doesn’t hurt to have two team captains that can get the job done night in and night out.
On Tuesday, those two team leaders signed their letters of intent to play college volleyball on full scholarships.
The team’s setter Chelsea Fowles will play next year at Utah State and outside hitter Morgan O’Laughlin will play at Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Askanas knows how crucial it is to have these two players firing on all cylinders as they make their push to the coveted CCS crown.
“Chelsea is a team leader. She brings so much knowledge and talent to this team. She is like a point guard in basketball. She runs the floor for us and does a great job,” he said. “Morgan is a good leader, and very determined to win. She has a lot of court savvy. Both of them have been a very big part of our success this year.”
In the opening round of the section tournament both of them played an instrumental role in the Balers impressive 25-9, 25-9, 25-16 win over No. 9 seed Andrew Hill High just as they have done so all season long.
This year Fowles has racked up a team-leading 803 assists, which just sounds like a number until one learns that the team’s No. 2 player in that statistical category has 95.
In addition to her ability to set up the outside hitters Fowles also knows how to put away the ball when called on to do so. This year she is fourth on the team in kills with 186, is second in digs with 235, and has 39 blocks and nearly 100 aces. She is also the team’s service points leader.
Just ahead of Fowles in the kills department is O’Laughlin, who has 212. O’Laughlin also has 141 digs and 22 blocked shots.
While O’Laughlin and Fowles represent the senior leadership on the Balers roster, it is safe to say that the 2006 roster is loaded with talent from top to bottom.
Junior Emily Kortsen leads the entire tri county area in kills with 413. Outside hitter Bri Romero is another player who has made many opposing coaches scratch their heads this season in awe at her ability to come up with crucial digs as well as demoralizing kills shots at the right time.
Romero leads the team this season with 268 digs and is second in kills with 232.
With those players and a slew of others, including the team’s top middle blocker Ali Sharp, all coming back next year, Askanas isn’t expecting much of a drop of in the team’s play in 2007 but he’d like nothing more than to see this year’s team reach the mountain top.
“This could really be our year if we want it enough,” he said. “We really have a good team.”
On Thursday night after press time the Balers squared off against the No. 4 seed Mt. Pleasant in the section quarterfinals. During the regular season Mt. Pleasant posted a record of 19-11 overall while the Balers were 28-7.
