Gilroy
– Talk about going from an extreme high to an extreme low.
With its offense rolling, the GHS boys’ volleyball team had just
played one of its best games all season, a 25
–14 Game 2 winner against Live Oak Friday night, to put itself
up two games to none in the match.
Gilroy – Talk about going from an extreme high to an extreme low.
With its offense rolling, the GHS boys’ volleyball team had just played one of its best games all season, a 25–14 Game 2 winner against Live Oak Friday night, to put itself up two games to none in the match.
All the ‘Stangs had to do was keep the momentum going.
But one roll of senior setter Patrick Largo’s right ankle changed all that.
“In the middle of the play, I saw him go down,” said outside hitter Vinny DeLorenzo, who had 16 kills in the match. “I thought ‘Oh, no.’ It was very scary.”
Largo, who has been the only setter for Gilroy all season long, twisted his ankle and was forced to leave the game with the score tied 3–3. He left the game with 23 assists and four kills.
One moment, Gilroy was thinking about finishing the Acorns (11–10, 5–5) in three games. The next, the ‘Stangs faced the possibility of going to a fourth game without Largo.
But with outside hitters DeLorenzo and Ryan Chisolm (4 kills) stepping up to fill Largo’s setting duties, the Mustangs survived the third game, and won the rivalry match in three games, 25–23, 25–14, 25–23.
And it felt good, considering the circumstances.
“This is the first year we’ve been able to put some lickings on (Live Oak),” DeLorenzo said.
Gilroy now stands at 8–3 in TCAL and 19–12 overall with two games remaining, including next Friday’s Senior Night match against Salinas.
Unfortunately for the Mustangs, even with a 20–win season, it is unlikely that they will get an at–large bid to the CCS playoffs because they are considered a “B” league team. Only the first-place team in league gets an automatic bid, which will be Monterey.
Coach Craig Martin said he’d been having DeLorenzo and Chisolm work a little bit on setting for the past couple weeks, somewhat in anticipation of next year, when the squad will lose Largo to graduation.
Still, it didn’t make the task any easier.
“Setting’s not my thing,” DeLorenzo laughed.
In the third game, the ‘Stangs fell behind 20–16, but rallied back to tie the game at 20 following a tip kill from Steven Good (9 kills), a Live Oak hitting error, a kill from Dominic Jackson (4 kills, 6 down blocks) and a down block from DeLorenzo.
A few points later, Jackson’s kill off a quick set from Chisolm tied the game at 23. On the next play, Live Oak was called for a lift to put GHS at match point. After a rally, Chisolm scored the winner on well–placed tip to the back corner of the Acorns’ court.
After a close first game, Gilroy made sure to take control in the second game and sprinted out to a 5–0 lead. The Mustangs even ended the game emphatically, with a cross play that featured two fake attacks before DeLorenzo blasted a kill to the other side.
“That’s a preview of some of the stuff you’re going to see next year,” Martin said about his team, which will have DeLorenzo, Chisolm and Jackson returning next year.
