On Senior Night, Monterey’s blockers keep Gilroy from clinching
TCAL title, possibly a spot in playoffs
Gilroy – Outside, right side, middle.
It didn’t matter where the Gilroy boys’ volleyball team set the ball. Monterey was there to block it.
The seemingly impenetrable wall the Toreadors put up at the net between themselves and the Mustangs Friday night increasingly frustrated Gilroy. And after a while, it was too much for the team to overcome.
“They’ve always been a good blocking team. They were always one step ahead of us,” said Gilroy senior setter Gene Losoncgo. “They picked it up and we couldn’t do anything we wanted.”
After losing the match’s first two games – and a nine-point lead in the latter – Gilroy watched their Tri-County Athletic League title hopes and an automatic bid to the Central Coast Section playoffs slip away, 16-25, 24-26, 13-25 in front of a home crowd on Senior Night.
Going into both teams’ final regular season match, Gilroy and Monterey sat atop the league with two losses apiece. The Mustangs had beaten the Toreadors in two previous meetings. But they wouldn’t win the matchup that had the most riding on it.
Because the TCAL is a B-league in boys’ volleyball, only the league champ gets an automatic bid to the CCS playoffs. The Mustangs, despite breaking the school record for most wins in a season for a Gilroy boys’ volleyball with 24, find out today if they will get in with an at-large bid.
Monterey finishes the regular season at 23-9 overall and 14-2 in league.
Leading Gilroy (24-9, 13-3 TCAL) were seniors Ryan Chisolm (11 kills), Vinny DeLorenzo (10 digs, 6 kills, 8 assists, 4 aces), Losongco (14 assists, 5 digs, 3 kills) and Travis Graham (3 kills).
The unfolding of the match had a negative domino effect on Gilroy. Monterey’s blockers made Gilroy attackers tentative. In Game 2, the Mustangs’ tentativeness cost them an eight-point lead and eventually the set.
In the second game, Graham broke a 7-7 tie with a block for kill. From there, the Mustangs extended the lead by going on a 8-1 run to take a 16-8 lead.
During that run, the Toreadors tried to break Gilroy’s momentum with a timeout. But Losongco returned to the service line after the break and reeled off three consecutive aces.
The Mustangs’ biggest lead of the game was 19-10 before they began to unravel. Monterey, helped out by some Mustangs errors, went on an 8-3 run.
In what appeared to be a turning point for the home team, Gilroy sophomore middle hitter Kevin Bruce put down a big kill off a quick set to make it 23-18. But the Mustangs would only score one more point after that while Monterey capitalized on the momentum it had to eventually win 26-24.
“The first game, we played good. In the second game, I don’t know what got into us,” DeLorenzo said. “I think with (our) bad passes not all feeding to the middle, (Monterey) got to know when and where (we were going to hit).”
Said Gilroy head coach Craig Martin, “If we win that second game, this match goes to five games. It’s a bump in the road of life.”
Overall, the Toreadors eliminated Gilroy’s height advantage, which is exactly what Monterey head coach Dave Swartz wanted.
“We know we can’t outplay them at the net. We had to move back and forth and drop some low balls in close and go deep,” the Monterey coach said. “They’re big and we wanted them to get down low.”
Although Gilroy got some quality wins during the season over Archbishop Mitty, Aptos and Willow Glen, Martin is doubtful that his team will get a CCS bid because it plays in a B-league. But that doesn’t mean the coach doesn’t think the Mustangs are deserving.
“We had the second least amount of losses of any Gilroy team (in history),” he said. “It was a good year.”
