San Benito towers over Andrew Hill, wins in three
Salinas – San Benito needed just under an hour to defeat No. 9 Andrew Hill in the Central Coast Section Division I quarterfinals Saturday at North Salinas High.
The No. 1 Haybalers won 25-9, 25-9, 25-16. They advance to the CCS semifinals Thursday and will face No. 4 Mt. Pleasant, who defeated No. 5 Evergreen Valley 22-25, 25-21, 25-15, 25-12.
“We made little changes on defense and on our serve-receives,” said ‘Baler coach Dean Askanas. “I think the team is moving in the right direction.”
Andrew Hill averages about 5-foot-5, but that didn’t stop them from beating Gilroy in the opening round of the playoffs in five games.
“They have good ball control,” Askanas said. “Their labero is very solid, and their setter is very smart. It is difficult when you are that undersized because everything has to be perfect. I think they did a very good job today as they did against Gilroy also.”
San Benito, which has a good four-inch height advantage, consistently used its size to pound home one-time hits that Andrew Hill had no chance of getting to.
“They didn’t have anyone that could really terminate the ball, and we have a really solid defense anyhow,” Askanas said. “Their defense would have had to shut our defense down, and that is very hard to do.”
In the first two games, everything seemed to go the Haybalers way. Long hits fell in just fair. The spikes were unstoppable, and the ‘Balers were blocking well. Andrew Hill had a brief 3-2 lead in the third game, but it didn’t last long.
The Haybalers knew the last thing they could do was afford to take the much smaller Falcons for granted.
“Coach was telling us that we couldn’t overlook them, and we didn’t,” said sophomore Justine Hunter. “We knew they were a good team, and we would have to play good to beat them.”
The ‘Balers had something to prove in their opening game after receiving a bye.
“We didn’t want to take them lightly,” said Morgan O’Laughlin, who had 9 kills. “We came in with the mindset that we wanted to prove that we should be seeded first. We had a lot of free balls and were able to work on some set plays. Our defense was really on its toes, and that helped the offense get set up.”
Emily Kortsen was the game leader with 17 kills. In addition to playing solid defense, Courtney Scarlett had six aces. Bri Romero had 5 kills and 4 aces for the ‘Balers.
There were some nerves, but for the most part, the ‘Balers were relaxed and did what they have all season – dominate.
“I was a little nervous,” said freshmen Samantha Klauer, who was playing in her first CCS game. “We wanted to play our hardest to beat them.”
