The girls volleyball team crushed the Hollister Balers in a quick three sets: 25-20, 25-15, and 25-13 on Tuesday afternoon. This win secured their spot in the CCS semifinals.
The Bears kicked off the first set with a strong spike from senior outside hitter Jocelyn Chang. M-A’s defense was able to match the strength of their offense with impressive blocks from seniors opposite hitter Ruby Stone and middle blocker Kayla Greenbaum.
As the first set progressed, the Bears pulled ahead, building a lead of 7-3 with help from Greenbaum’s powerful back-to-back serves. While the Balers attempted to push back, M-A’s defense remained sturdy, only letting a few points slip through. Junior outside hitter Sophie Marks smashed a spike to make it 12-7, followed by another hit from junior opposite hitter Louisa King* to stretch the lead even further.
More kills from Chang and great defense from senior libero Kylie Winters got the Bears to a comfortable 16-7 lead. Despite a short run from the Balers, M-A closed out the set 25-20 after amazing teamwork and high spirits. “My favorite part of the game was how excited we were,” Greenbaum said. “I think we’ve had some sad and quiet games, and we finally got excited.”
The Bears carried their momentum into the second set, quickly jumping to a 5-2 lead after a serving streak by Chang. A spike from Greenbaum pushed the score to 7-2, and the front row’s defense continued to dominate.
Marks delivered two kills in a row, while Greenbaum and Stone combined for another crucial block, setting the score at 12-5. “I think our blocking was one of the best we’ve ever done,” Greenbaum said.
M-A called a timeout, giving them a chance to regroup after the Balers went on a three point run. Greenbaum’s spike extended the lead to 18-11, and more play would eventually lead to a clean kill by Marks to seal the set, 25-15, as the crowd erupted in cheers.
“We definitely feed off the energy from the crowd. There were a lot of supporters here today, and we were able to call some timeouts, reset, and ice them out, which worked really well,” Marks said.
The Bears went into the third set with a lot of energy. M-A’s defense started slow, but made sure to bounce back with power. Kills from Chang and Marks, and an ace from Chou, gave the Bears a slight 4-2 lead, but this would mark the start of their dominant streak.
A block and kill from Stone, followed by a kill from Marks, allowed the Bears to go on a roll and establish a sizable 11-3 lead. The Balers managed a short streak of aces to bring it to 11-9, but Marks answered with a kill. Soon enough, Greenbaum’s serves pushed the tally to 16-9.
From there, M-A was unstoppable. King tactically tipped the ball over the block for a point to make it 18-11, and after a few long rallies, Marks and Chang sealed the set with consecutive kills for the win, 25-13.
“We spent a lot of time talking about having confidence on the court and being able to support our teammates,” Chang said. “I think above all, we just really worked hard on our skills and worked hard in practice.”
“We just took a step back and went back to our basics and made sure we really talked about our seam and serve receive,” Greenbaum said. “Once our serve receive picked itself back up, then we were able to execute better.”
“I thought it was a really successful game, a really clean win for us. I think it’s going to set us up well for the rest of this tournament, and I’m just really excited to see how the team continues to develop, offensively and defensively,” Chang said.
With this 3-0 sweep, M-A will now advance to the CCS semifinals, where they will face off against the Los Gatos Wildcats at home on Thursday at 7 p.m.
*Louisa King is a journalist for the M-A Chronicle.
