It never was supposed to be easy for the San Benito girls volleyball team while seeking to win the first Monterey Bay League title and it showed Tuesday against another league-title hopeful, Salinas.
San Benito couldn’t keep pace with the Cowboys and lost in four sets, 3-1, to fall to 6-7 in the young season. On Tuesday, though, San Benito started strong but over the course of the last three sets, the Balers slowly lost control as the game’s stress started build.
The flat end wasn’t a surprise for Baler head coach Dean Askanas, he said. Through the first weeks of the season the team has struggled to stay emotional sound.
“Well, I think we get a little emotional down when teams start to push us,” Dean Askanas. “We are kind of a roller coaster emotional wise. Because I think we had those guys (Salinas) in trouble and once they pushed back, we kind of, I don’t think we pushed as hard as we could, you know.”
He continued, “I think we gave up points too easily.”
It may have been an unsettling beginning to the league season, but the Balers’ Raelynn Heredia called it motivation.
“Yeah actually, I think we should take this as a motivation,” she said. “We can definitely use this to go full force and do what we can do. I’m excited. I’m excited to work it out.”
it wasn’t all struggles for San Benito, though. The Balers opened the match with intensity and a long run, taking an early 6-1 lead.
Junior Erica Chapa started out strong for San Benito, grabbing three of her match-high 13 kills in the opening moments. Melyssa Martinez also aided the fast start with a pair of aces.
The Balers’ emotions overwhelmed Salinas, who struggled to find an early consistent groove.
But midway through the first set, Salinas started to slowly gain some momentum. Salinas’ Maddy Mandon sparked the Cowboys from the outside, pulling the team within one point at 9-8.
Behind Ellie Burley, Chapa, Heredia and Alexandria Smallwood, the Balers once again pulled away slightly to win the first set 25-23. Senior captain Burley scored the final two points for the Balers after Salinas pulled to 23-22.
The San Benito momentum didn’t last long in the second game, after taking an early 3-1 lead, Mandon led Salinas on a 16-7 run to take control of the set and match.
Once the Balers fell behind big, they started to struggle to find consistent point opportunities.
“I think it’s our energy,” Heredia said. “We definitely have peaks and valleys. I think we want it so bad that it effects us so much that we just don’t know how to handle it. We keep our emotions in and that killed us a little bit.”
That reaction to stress has become more noticeable as the season has continued, Askanas said.
“This is something that we’ve been discussing and working on,” he said. “I think we have a pretty good group – a combination of offense and defense. I think some of those intangibles are hurting us. We know it’s an issue, because we’ve had this issue during the season where we do go flat and that was proven again here tonight.”
To fix that let down, the Balers are trying to build its team camaraderie through cheering between each point. Askanas believes it will bring the team together and relieve some of the pressure they’ve put on themselves.
“One of the things we are working on is coming together after each point, huddling together,” he said. “I think there is a lot to be said what’s in-between the ears.”
The Baler struggles amplified as the match continued, as Salinas won the final three sets by scores of 25-21, 25-20, 25-20. Despite the three-straight set losses, the Balers never gave up, twice coming back from double-digit deficits to pull closer.
In the final set of the match, San Benito fell behind 17-7 before scoring seven of the next eight points.
“The second half of that game, we got emotionally charged again and it was all exciting and everyone was having a good time and they made a run,” Askanas said of his team.
In the loss, San Benito was led by Burley and Chapa, both finishing with 13 kills. Smallwood finished with nine kills. Heredia was the defensive leader for the Balers, contributing 34 digs. Setter Marissa Espino finished with 30 assists for the Balers.
Despite the loss, it was a good early-season learning experience, Heredia said.
“Well, Salinas is one of the top competitions,” she said. “I’m actually really glad we had them first. Hopefully, we learn from our mistakes and go to practice and go for it. I mean we still want to take league and, hopefully, we can.”
