GILROY—From the start, Junipero Serra gave Christopher a fight—and Christopher showed it wasn’t going down easy.
Unfortunately for the hosts, it was the Padres who walked away with a 3-2 victory after a back and forth contest Tuesday in the first round of the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs.
Christopher won Set 1 28-26 and Set 3 25-17, but lost Sets 2 and 4 21-25 and Set 5 8-15.
The momentum was in the Padres’ favor after their win in Set 4, but Cougar MVP Manny Salcedo said his team wasn’t about to roll over. After a quick pep talk outside, they came in fired up and exchanged leads with Serra. The set saw four ties in the early going, the last of which was 5-5. A block here and a couple kills there swung the game in the visitor’s favor. They went on a five-point run from which the Cougars couldn’t recover.
“I took the guys outside and I asked them ‘Who’s going to want it more? We’ve got to keep our poise and keep it one point at a time’,” Salcedo said. “They kind of got to us.”
It looked as if Christopher would seal the victory in four sets, taking a dominate five-point lead, 18-13, in Set 4. But errors and strong Serra defense was a lethal combination for Christopher, who allowed the Padres to go on an eight-point run and take a 22-18 lead from which the Cougars couldn’t recover.
Salcedo injured his back during practice Monday, but powered through to come up with seven kills and four blocks in the game. He had a block followed by a key kill towards the end of Set 1 which gave Christopher a 26-25 lead to keep the game going.
“I still came out here and played my hardest as much as I could,” Salcedo said.
The Cougars were down by three, but capitalized on Padres’ errors to tie the game at 19-19. Serra went up again by four, 24-20, but the hosts fought back to tie it. A kill by Wolfgang Baumgartner gave them the lead at 25-24—their first since going up 2-1 in the opening minutes.
The match contained 16 different lead changes, five of which came in Set 2. It was back and forth for most of the game until kills by Salcedo, Phillip Castro and Connor McConkie gave Christopher a 16-13 lead. Serra took advantage of two Cougar errors and had two kills of its own to take a 17-16 lead from which it never looked back.
Game 3 belonged to Christopher. The Cougars got into an early 5-0 hole, but dug themselves out and only allowed Serra to get within two, 17-15, before pulling away for good. Cougar captain Castro ended the game with a kill to cement the win. Castro led the team with nine kills.
“I knew that we had something special from the first day of practice,” Salcedo said. “I knew that this was a team that could go far. Even though we lost today, I’m proud of my team. We took it this far and we made Cougar history for two years in a row making the playoffs.”
Christopher ends the season with a 22-12 overall record.
