With an all-of-a-sudden spark off the right arm of Jessica
Steigelman, coupled with a pair of consecutive kills from Ryan Asp
and a key down-block from Katherine Breger, San Benito propelled
past Homestead with a last-ditch, five-set win on Thursday
night.
HOLLISTER
There wasn’t a timeout. There was maybe a brief, on-court meeting among players following a point, but not much time to regroup at all.
It’s what made San Benito’s all-of-a-sudden turnaround effort on Thursday night against visiting Homestead just a little more improbable.
“We just kept fighting for everything,” San Benito senior Jessica Steigelman said of her team’s five-set (20-25, 25-17, 20-25, 28-26, 15-11) come-from-behind victory. “We never had a doubt in our mind.”
In a non-conference matchup that carried a playoff-like intensity, visiting Homestead came within three points of defeating San Benito at Hollister’s Mattson Gym, and with a somewhat quiet four-game outcome, no less.
But an all-of-a-sudden spark off the right arm of Steigelman, coupled with a pair of consecutive kills from Ryan Asp and a key down-block from Katherine Breger, propelled the Balers to a last-ditch, five-set win over the Cupertino school on Thursday night.
“It’s hard to get much more intense that that, whether it’s a league match or something else,” San Benito head coach Dean Askanas said.
San Benito is now 4-3 overall on the early season.
The Balers nearly fell a game under .500, though, when Homestead grabbed a 22-19 lead in the fourth game following a San Benito hitting error. But three straight points by Steigelman supplied the Balers with a one-point edge, and after the two teams exchanged points later in the fourth game, Breger supplied the game-winning block at the net en route to a 28-26 win.
“At the end of the game, we started pulling together as a team,” said Steigelman, who finished with 18 digs and a team-high 11 kills.
San Benito received strong efforts from a handful of players, including Megan Kelley (4 blocks, 2 kills), Ellie Burley (4 blocks, 3 kills), Corey Habina (15 digs), Asp (8 kills) and Breger, who provided seven kills, four blocks and nine digs in the match.
Sophomore setter Raelynn Heredia, meanwhile, had 32 assists and 20 digs.
The Game 4 victory by San Benito didn’t necessarily deflate the visiting Mustangs, though. Anchored by 6-foot freshman Casey Carroll and fellow outside hitter Megan Wong, Homestead battled back to knot the decisive fifth game at 8-all after Wong slammed down two kills.
But a kill by Mari Vallejo, who had just two in the game to go along with her 23 digs, pushed the Balers ahead for good. San Benito’s don’t-break defense outlasted Homestead late — the Mustangs hit four errors at the tail end of the fifth set.
“The rallies were so long, we needed the tough defense,” said senior libero Sara Yamasaki, who supplied a team-high 42 digs Thursday. “Their outside hitters could put the ball anywhere, so we couldn’t cheat anywhere.
“But we really showed up on defense. I’m really proud of them.”
Askanas’ “game of attrition” was increasingly apparent as the match wore on Thursday. San Benito’s hitting errors marred play during the early sets, leaving the Baler head coach to preach his “bettering the ball” approach.
“We just give ourselves a chance and out-dig the other team and keep control of our spots, and that’s what [Steigelman] did at the end,” Askanas said. “Controlled shots. Pick your spots.
“It’s an exhausting way to play. But we’re hoping in November that we can take a hard swing and terminate.”
The approach, Steigelman felt, may have been the difference in the end.
“We weren’t trying to swing for the wall,” she said. “We were just keeping the ball in the court.”
The team is off until next Thursday when it will travel to Palo Alto for a date with the Vikings, a team Askanas believes is one of the top teams in the Central Coast Section this year.
Match time is 5:30 p.m.
“I think we have confidence now because we fought all the way through game five, and won,” Yamasaki said on Thursday. “We can fight through.”
