Hollister beats Valley Christian for the first time in seven
years to open up the Hollister October Fest
Hollister – Coach Derek Kisling and the San Benito High girls’ water polo team have been waiting seven years to beat Valley Christian.
And on Friday in opening-round action of the Hollister October Fest Tournament at the SBHS pool, it finally happened as the Haybalers defeated the Warriors 8-7 in overtime for their first of two wins on Friday.
“We’ve played them pretty close the last four years,” Kisling said. “But we’ve never been able to get over the hump. We finally did it today. We had them, decided to let them back into the game, and then the girls showed character, fought back and won.”
Valley Christian tied things up late in the fourth quarter to force overtime when Hollister’s Shelli Reid made a heads up play to put her defender in a position where she had no choice but to foul. The penalty put the ‘Balers in a man-up situation and Jayme Tells fired in a shot to give the game to Hollister.
The Haybalers faced Monterey in their second game of the day and the confidence the team had established from its win over the Warriors showed right away.
Katie Buzzetta took first possession and she immediately dished the passed the ball up to a driving Reid, who rifled a shot past the Monterey keeper. Less than a minute later, Buzzetta got a goal of her own to make it 2-0.
Kristen Palm scored following a penalty on Monterey later in the quarter to put Hollister up 3-0 at the end of the first.
The second quarter saw the Haybalers really start to open it up. Hollister was able to move the ball around with precision and the open looks that resulted put the tournament’s host team up 8-1 by the end of the second.
That second quarter was highlighted by several nice saves from ‘Baler goalkeeper Krista Maisoneuve as well as a crafty goal scored by Valerie Nicolaysen with time running out on the shot clock.
Monterey got a quick score to start the second half but Nicolaysen answered right back by driving right through the defense to score easily and put Hollister up 9-2. Another deep score from Monterey made it 9-3 but the ‘Balers again answered quickly on a goal by Buzzetta. At 10-3, Buzzetta snatched the ball away from the Monterey player she was defending and kicked it out to Stephanie Rodriquez, who put it past the Monterey keeper for an 11-3 score.
In the final quarter, he Haybalers got three goals from Telles and one each from Jarae Tanner and Rodriquez to wrap up the impressive win 17-3. Palm notched a pair of assists in the fourth as well.
“The past two weeks, we’ve been working on two things: passing and shooting,” Kisling said. “We dedicated two-solid weeks of practice to those things and it showed. The girls are passing well and finding corners on shots. You have to learn to win and the girls are starting to do that.”
The Haybalers face Terra Nova at 10:30am today at the SBHS pool in game three.
