The Gavilan College women’s volleyball team landed the 12th-seed
in the Northern California bracket of the 2010 junior college
regional playoffs and will head north to play No. 5 Sacramento City
Tuesday night.
GILROY
The Gavilan College women’s volleyball team landed the 12th-seed in the Northern California bracket of the 2010 junior college regional playoffs and will head north to play No. 5 Sacramento City Tuesday night.
“Usually that 12-5 matchup is one you want to pull if you are going to be a lower seed,” Gavilan head coach Kevin Kramer said.
On the docket are the Panthers, who placed in a tie for second in the Big 8 Conference with a 20-7 record.
“They are good,” Kramer said. “We haven’t seen them much this year and we haven’t played them this year. Seeing a little bit of tape on them, we think we know enough about them to give us at least a good opportunity to be ready for them.”
The Panthers swept the Rams 25-10, 25-19, 25-21 in September 2009 at an early-season tournament.
Heading into Tuesday’s first round, sophomore Shayna Nakata is two digs shy of the program’s single-season record of 418, set last season by Bri Romero. Also, freshman Melissa Avila needs just two assists from setting the single-season assist mark, currently held by Jamie Skocko, who registered 713 in 2008.
“Everybody is in a good spot right now. We are mixing it up a little bit with what we do just to kind of move some people around and I think it has reinvented a couple people as far as their attitude,” Kramer said.
“Seems to me right now we are as good as we have been in probably a month and a half, two months.”
The Rams (16-8) finished second in the Coast Conference South, advancing to the regionals for the second straight year with an automatic bid.
As the No. 8-seed, the Rams dropped a thrilling five-set match (25-19, 24-26, 25-18, 23-25, 15-13) in the first round last season to No. 9-seed Diablo Valley College. Sacramento City, last season’s No. 1-seed in Nor Cal, advanced to the state tournament, going 1-2.
