‘Balers defeat Deer Valley in three games
Hollister – It almost seemed too easy.
Taking on Deer Valley in the first round of the CIF Northern California girls volleyball playoffs Tuesday, San Benito swept the Wolverines to move to the semifinals and to within three wins of a state title.
“Our crowd helped a lot,” senior setter Chelsea Fowles said of the enthusiastic fans at Matson Gym in the ‘Balers first home game of the postseason.
San Benito (32-7) now travels to Grass Valley on Saturday at 7pm to take on Nevada Union, which beat Lowell 25-10, 25-12, 25-23 in its first-round match Tuesday.
“I think we’re playing very confident and aggresive,” coach Dean Askanas said. “I was very happy to see us come out swinging.”
While the team was coming off its big win in the Central Coast Section championship game Saturday to bring home the school’s first girls volleyball title, it made sure it was focused for this game.
“We had a lot of adrenaline from winning CCS,” junior Bri Romero said. “We didn’t want to fall behind thinking we had accomplished everything in CCS. … We just know that it’s not over until you take state.”
The ‘Balers were aggressive early, jumping out to an early 7-3 lead in the first game. Deer Valley closed the gap to 9-8 but never got any closer.
Fowles eventually closed out the game with a perfectly placed service ace that concluded a 25-17 win.
San Benito scored the first three points in the second game and appeared to be on another roll. But the Wolverines didn’t back down and rallied to take a 7-6 lead.
Three straight points regained the lead for the ‘Balers but a service error and another Deer Valley point tied it up at 9-all.
But a 7-1 run, highlighted by three kills by Fowles, gave San Benito control of the game at 16-10.
Ali Sharp helped lengthen the lead when she had a string of three straight service aces to make it 22-13 and the ‘Balers earned a 25-15 win.
The third game provided another strong start for San Benito as it notched the first four points. The ‘Balers eventually built a 19-14 lead before Deer Valley began a comeback.
Two straight points trimmed the Wolverines’ deficit to three and after San Benito scored a point, Deer Valley rattled off three straight scores to make it 20-19.
Consecutive kills by Sharp and Emily Kortsen, who had a team-high 15 kills, and another ‘Baler point forced the Wolverines to call a time out.
The time out wasn’t enough to slow down San Benito and on match-point, Fowles delivered one of her 10 kills on the night to move the ‘Balers to the next round.
