Lady spikers swept away by reigning champ Hollister
GILROY – The Lady Mustang spikers wanted to beat Hollister so bad it hurt.
But the added pressure of knocking off the five-time defending league champs weighed too heavy on their minds Monday as the hosts fell in three hard-fought games, 11-25, 22-25, 26-28.
“It’s disappointing. We really wanted this game,” said sophomore Catherine Hussey, who finished with a team-high 14 assists to go along with her three kills. “We work hard, but sometimes one mistake gets us down and we can’t let that happen.”
Senior Yanina Gonzalez led the Gilroy attack with a game-high 12 kills, while senior Lourella Palao added six kills and a team-high eight digs. The Lady Mustang statistics were also highlighted by three aces from setter Kassi Thomas and six digs apiece from Raquel Lucente and Amy Trujillo.
“If we’re going to go down, we’re going to go down fighting. They hung together and played as a team,” head coach Sam Navarez said. “We were kinda disappointed with the outcome. I think we put so much pressure on ourselves.”
The three-game match loss dropped the Lady Mustangs’ league record to 2-5 and their overall mark to 20-8 with three league home games remaining against Notre Dame on Oct. 29, against North Salinas on Nov. 4 and against Live Oak on Nov. 6. Hollister improved to 4-3 in league and 17-16 overall.
“Our season’s far from over. This would have been the cap stone because it’s Hollister. But as far as we’re concerned, the girls did the best job they could,” Navarez said. “They played well. Hollister is a good team. We just can’t give them those breaks.”
After suffering a 11-25 opening loss to Hollister, the Lady Mustangs found themselves in a tight battle in the second game. Gilroy jumped out to a 7-3 advantage before the Lady Haybalers slowly trimmed away at the deficit, finally tying the score at 16-16.
The Lady Mustangs could not stop the bleeding as Hollister pushed ahead 20-16. But the local spikers kept their heads straight and surged back to come within one point of tying the match. Hollister, however, finished up strong and scored two straight to steal the second game, 25-22.
The two straight losses did not keep Gilroy from coming out on fire in the third game – building a 6-0 lead behind the serve of Thomas. Hollister fought back though, evening the score at 9-9. The teams faced eight more tie scores before Hollister’s Melissa Moore (10 kills) scored two straight aces to end the match. Her first serve was a rocket that could not get dug out. Her second serve hit the net, rolled up top, and then fell on the Gilroy side.
In this year’s rule change, a serve can touch the net as long as it goes over. Last year, it would be a fault and given to the other team. In addition, the teams play in a best-of-five rally format to 25 with both allowed to score no matter which is serving.
“We can’t let this affect us in the next game. We wanted this bad, but we can’t let it keep us down,” Hussey said. “We have to keep thinking we’re playing for CCS and hopefully we’ll get into the playoffs.”
