San Benito sweeps North Salinas in 3
San Benito setter Alisha Cornick described it as a game of
keep-away.
About a month after losing to the North Salinas Vikings in four
games on the road, the Lady Balers learned from their mistakes on
Tuesday night in Hollister, and simply prevented junior outside
hitter Julia Ashen from being a key component yet again.
San Benito sweeps North Salinas in 3
San Benito setter Alisha Cornick described it as a game of keep-away.
About a month after losing to the North Salinas Vikings in four games on the road, the Lady Balers learned from their mistakes on Tuesday night in Hollister, and simply prevented junior outside hitter Julia Ashen from being a key component yet again.
“At the last game, she definitely ran the court the whole way around,” Cornick said of Ashen, who deposited 15 kills and 14 digs on San Benito during their Sept. 24 match. “She was swinging all over the place.”
Not on Tuesday, though; not after the Lady Balers served away from Ashen all night. Behind 30 assists and 20 digs from Cornick, San Benito posted a somewhat easy three-game sweep (25-19, 25-15, 25-19) over the visiting Vikings at Mattson Gym in Hollister, and avenged its previous loss to North High in somewhat convincing fashion.
“She’s a tough competitor, but we were able to keep the ball away from her with our serving,” Cornick said. “We worked on serving spots.”
The strategy was an obvious success as San Benito built large leads in each of the first two games. During the previous week of practice, the Lady Balers ran North Salinas’ two-back serve receive, and pretended San Benito libero Sam Klauer was Ashen.
“And we worked on serving away from Sam,” San Benito head coach Dean Askanas said. “She’s very good, obviously. We were trying to keep her out of the game.”
When Ashen did make her way to the net, San Benito dropped Cornick, Klauer and defensive specialist Sara Yamasaki back, awaiting the hit.
“We worked on pulling blockers off and letting the defense sit back and dig her,” Askanas said.
Although Ashen was still a factor on Tuesday night, especially from behind the service line, the Lady Balers built early leads in the first two games they never relinquished.
In Game 1, Cornick was on her game from the start, setting up attackers to the left and to the right of the net, with middle blocker Emily Tonascia being the early recipient. Tonascia deposited a kill, a block and a tip at the net to supply San Benito with a quick 4-1 lead.
“Alisha was the difference tonight,” Askanas said. “She set a great game.”
Cornick then found outside hitter Jessica Meade on the left side, who pocketed four of her team-high 11 kills in the opening set, including one swing that lasered down the left sideline for a 22-12 San Benito lead.
“It’s a great win for us,” Meade said. “It was really uplifting. It was kind of a redemption win.”
The Vikings beat San Benito 25-23, 25-23, 18-25 and 25-20 a month ago — the Lady Balers were only able to salvage a Game 3 victory to prevent a sweep.
The roles appeared to be reversed on Tuesday after San Benito took the first two games, and the Vikings grabbed a five-point lead in the third set behind the impressive jump serve of Ashen and front-row attack of Jasmin Rowland.
But after a service error removed Ashen from the line, San Benito marched right back into the game, quickly erasing the 12-7 deficit. A Meade kill made it 13-10, while Cornick surprised the Vikings with a set that landed in no-man’s land on North High’s side of the court. Tonascia then supplied the go-ahead kill for a 14-13 lead.
“We were clicking out there and everyone was on,” Meade said. “We played well as a team. We lost (to North Salinas on Sept. 24), so it showed us where we stand and where we are.”
“I think we’ve come a long way,” Cornick said. “We have a rotation that works for us where everyone is communicating and involved.”
