GILROY — For both Gilroy and Christopher, Wednesday’s crosstown game was about improvement.
The Cougars’ starters got to rest the final set as they cruised to a 3-0 win over the Mustangs on the road. Christopher won 25-13, 25-9, 25-16 with its bench players in for Game 3.
“We got to see our reserve players come in and get some touches,” senior outside hitter Marcus Torres said. “That was really good to see them actually get to play for once. It’s hard of hard in the season when you’re playing all these games and you don’t really get this opportunity very often.”
Gilroy coach Paolo Palao was happy with result in spite of the sweep. The Mustangs’ squad of mostly underclassmen — only three of the 13 are juniors — were able to hang tough with the Cougars who are made up of exclusively upperclassmen.
Winning is ultimate goal, of course, but Palao said he really just wants to see some passion from his players.
“I told them they need to have that fire,” he said. “It’s a big crosstown rivalry and I think they brought it. …We didn’t get as many points on the board as we could have. We made the same little mistakes we’ve been making with the down balls out of the court and not keeping it in bounds.
“At the same time they did a really good job of staying consistent and not getting their heads down. I can understand that gets difficult once you get in a hole. I am completely OK with the result of tonight’s result.”
The Mustangs had to dig their way out of a hole to start each game, trailing by as much 8-0 in the second. Christopher packed a triple punch with Torres, Christian Carpenter and Bryant Huynh all overpowering the Mustangs. Carpenter and Huynh also displayed superior serving, both picking up an ace. Carpenter and Torreshad three kills and a block each.
Despite all that, Torres said his team can still be better.
“We need to work on communication — that’s a big thing for us,” Torres said. “Especially in volleyball, it’s a big concept of the sport. We also need to work on our defense a little better. We need to get to our spots and make sure we don’t bump into each other and stuff like that.”
The Mustangs were led by sophomore setter Ryan Nguyen who had two kills, an ace, a block and three digs in the game. Gilroy scored only five of their 13 points in the first game offensively — the rest came from Christopher errors or fouls — and Nguyen had two of those points.
“He’s our setter and he’s doing his job,” Palao said. “We don’t have a secondary setter because we trust enough in him to do his duties. That’s one of the things we need to work on is making it so he doesn’t have to work so much harder than the rest of his team.”
Nguyen, like Torres, said the key to success lies in his team being more vocal as the season continues.
“We need a lot of communication — a lot,” he said. “Me, being captain, and just being out there a lot with Kade (McDermott, co-captain), we just try to get these guys to talk.”
Gilroy (0-7 overall, 0-4 in league) will be back on the court at 6:30 p.m. tonight at Palma. Christopher (4-3, 3-1) will host San Benito at 6:30 p.m.
The two teams will meet again on April 29 at 6:30 p.m. at Christopher for the Cougars’ home finale.
