Lady Mustang spiker win seventh straight over Seaside
GILROY – The undefeated Lady Mustang spikers rolled over Seaside Tuesday night for their seventh straight victory – winning in four games, 25-22, 25-8, 21-25, 25-21.
“I think we could’ve done better but we tried our hardest,” safid senior hitter Lourella Palao, who tallied team-highs in kills with 12 and digs with 10. “We just didn’t play as well as we could have.”
They didn’t need their best stuff to get the win, though.
Tuesday night’s match-up was played at Gavilan College, while the work on the Gilroy High gymnasium is being completed. The Lady Mustangs won for the second time in as many days on the community college hard court – beating Gonzales on Monday. They will play Thursday night’s contest against Mount Madonna at the Ascencion Solarsano gym in Gilroy.
The Lady Mustang spikers received a strong offensive effort from Amanda Link with eight kills as well as from setters Katherine Hussey with 15 assists and Kassi Thomas with eight assists. Senior Yanina Gonzalez was the defensive leader with 10 digs.
“I was surprised in that we were making mistakes that we haven’t made in the past,” said head coach Sam Naverez of his talented bunch. “I wasn’t surprised in how well they played.”
After taking the opening two games, Gilroy was prevented from getting the sweep as Seaside made a late run to break a tightly contested game-three. The Lady Mustangs took the lead twice, but each time Seaside battled back and finally claimed the lead and finished strong.
With the momentum in Seaside’s favor after the win, the Lady Mustangs regrouped in the next game and came out firing to seal the match victory.
“We didn’t expect what we were given, (but) we were able to pull through in the end,” Link said.
The Lady Mustangs are gearing up for another tough go-around in the Tri-County Athletic League season – hoping their winning combination will carry over. Last year, Gilroy had a successful pre-season, but were not able to continue to come out on top into league play.
But this year, Navarez said he sees a shifting in power in the league. Hollister has dominated the league in the past years, but Navarez believes that his girls will make it this season.
“I truly believe we’ll be in the thick of things if we continue doing what we’ve been doing,” Navarez said.
The Lady Mustangs will continue their non-league schedule against Mt. Madonna on Thursday and then an entry into the Westmont Tournament on Sept. 20 before starting T-CAL play on Sept. 30 on the road in Salinas.
