Up 23-14 in the third game of the Balers volleyball match with Palma on Tuesday, San Benito looked like it was going to take control of the early-season contest.
The Chieftains, though, had other ideas.
Palma rallied for the match’s next 10 points to take the lead over the Balers and threaten San Benito’s two-game Tri-County Athletic League winning streak.
But given a chance, thanks to a Palma miscue, the Balers responded.
San Benito scored the next three points and escaped with a 26-24 game-three win, on its way to a 3-1 match win.
“We played hard tonight,” assist leader David Hawks said. “We got off to a slow start but we were able to hold together and pull off the win. We have a lot of experience from last year. When the games get tough and we start to get down, we turn it around and we don’t get too emotionally involved.”
That mindset worked Tuesday for the Balers without their head coach Sam Klauer and three players from the teams usual playing rotation. Taking over for Klauer’s coaching duties was assistant coach Emily Tonascia.
“We are missing everybody but we still managed to pull it out, which is nice,” Tonascia said. “I think perseverance and being able to push — even though everything is against you — that’s what it taught me. I thought they played really well tonight for what they were given.”
San Benito opened the match with a commanding 25-15 first-game win. After losing to Palma in the second game – despite begin tied at 22 — the Balers won the match’s final two games.
“We are really hard on ourselves because we want to be super good,” Tonascia said. “Once we let go and play, we are a lot better. We are missing a couple of key players so in the second and third game we freaked out a little bit. Afterward, we let go a little bit and played better.”
San Benito was led by Hawks and Carlos Gutierrez, who had a team-high 12 kills and seven blocks. Isaiah Acfalle played well with nine kills and three blocks.
David Stanton also contributed with nine kills for the Balers.
With three league wins in a row, the Balers expect to continue getting better, Hawks said.
“We had a lot of guys that came out from other sports,” Hawks said. “We didn’t have a lot of practice together, but once we started practicing together we got that team unity up. We started to work together on the court instead of individuals on the court.”
San Benito host Alisal on Thursday.
