Baler girls volleyball team nabs second in Norcal tourney
For most teams, winning a league title, finishing second in the
Central Coast Section playoffs and making it to the semifinals of
the Northern California state tournament would be a huge
success.
Baler girls volleyball team nabs second in Norcal tourney
For most teams, winning a league title, finishing second in the Central Coast Section playoffs and making it to the semifinals of the Northern California state tournament would be a huge success.
For the San Benito High girls’ volleyball team accomplishments like that have been par for the course ever since Dean Askanas took over the Baler head coaching duties three seasons ago. Since then, the Balers have an overall record of 87-23.
That’s why, despite accomplishing all of the aforementioned feats, the Balers walked off the court with a bitter taste in their mouths after losing 21-25, 25-20, 25-21, and 25-18 to Nevada Union High School in last Saturday’s Nor Cal semifinal game.
“We were disappointed but we shouldn’t be,” said Askanas, who has guided the Balers to three league titles, one CCS title, two second-place finishes at CCS, one trip to the Nor Cal state finals and two more to the state semifinals in his three seasons at the helm of the program. “We should realize how much success we’ve had. It’s not easy to go where we’ve been going every year.”
Just as they had in the CCS championship game against Homestead High, the Balers picked up a clutch win in the first game against Nevada Union but couldn’t close the deal – despite having the early momentum on their side.
“I thought we played pretty well against Nevada Union,” Askanas said. “We fought hard all the way through. I was proud of our effort. When we played Homestead I thought we kind of just gave up and fell apart after going a game up, but not in this game.”
After taking the first game, the Balers committed a number of unforced errors in the second game and were forced to play from behind for most of the game. San Benito did tie the second game at 10-10 before falling behind down the stretch.
After dropping the third game, the Balers were able to open up a 3-0 lead in the fourth game but weren’t able to fend Nevada Union off when it mattered most.
“As the match went on I felt like we needed to move them around more and serve tougher. When a team has that much offense you need to put them out of their system as much as possible,” Askanas said. “We just weren’t able to do that.”
A year ago, the Balers defeated Nevada Union in the same game before losing to Pleasanton’s Foothill High School in the Nor Cal championship game.
“We always have high expectations. We have them high for the team and the team has them high of themselves,” Askanas said. “For most teams this would have been a very good year.”
After losing five players to graduation next May – including three-time league MVP (see related story) Emily Kortsen it is expected to be a rebuilding year for the Balers. But with a strong group of underclassman coming up Askanas expects that it won’t be too long before San Benito is vying for another Section title and state championship.
“You can put this in the paper. I’ll say it,” Askanas said. “Next year will be a rebuilding year but I’ll go on record now and say that in 2009 and 2010 we will win back-to-back CCS titles.”
And when a coach has a track record like Askanas, who would question him?
