Not much has slowed, let alone stopped, a rolling Anzar High volleyball team through its first nine matches. Gilroy High had it as its objective to halt the surging Hawks, winners of five straight, in a nonleague contest Wednesday night in Gilroy.
Fresh off of a four-set win the previous night at Pioneer, the Mustangs looked as though they had picked up right where they left off, storming out of the gates to an 11-4 lead in Game 1.
The Hawks (9-1), who had dropped just four sets on their 25 played coming into the night, quickly erased the deficit and eventually breezed to a 25-18, 25-16, 25-14 victory over the Mustangs – their ninth of the season.
“I just think it was a slow start. We weren’t taking care of the little things like we usually do,” said Anzar coach Chloe Goldman, whose team was also coming off of a win Tuesday. “I think that’s all it was.”
Gilroy’s hot start was quelled by a unfavorable combination of untimely errors and the tactical hitting of the Hawks, who seemed to locate the soft spot in the Mustangs’ defense at an uncanny clip throughout the three sets.
“They were smart hitters. They were hitting where our girls weren’t,” Gilroy coach Kassi Swalboski said. “We need to work on covering tips and on covering the line. But there are lots of things that we can take away from this game. It was a hard one to lose, because I think we could have won.”
And fifteen points into the match, it looked like the Mustangs were on to something.
Four points from Lelani Mah – including two service aces – three from Demi Snapp and another McKenna Morley paced Gilroy out to its 11-4 advantage. But the Hawks soon had it at 15-15 and rushed home on a 10-3 run to clinch the first set.
Raleigh McKinney had three of her match-high 11 kills in the first set. Delaney McKinney added four kills and in the opening set.
The Mustangs were forced to play catch-up in the second, falling behind by as many as eight early on before cutting into the deficit at 16-12 midway through.
“We didn’t play our usual game,” Goldman said. “Gilroy did a good job of keeping us on our toes.”
From the 16-12 stanza, another well-crafted push to 25 allowed Anzar to take a two-sets-to-none lead. Emily Papenhausen had two aces for Anzar down the stretch. She had four total on the night.
Seven different Hawks contributed at least one point in the third set. Brittney Doty had a pair of aces, while Justine Lee, Monica Medina and Karina Campos supplemented the scoring with kills.
“Right now, once they get down, they can’t seem to pick themselves up,” Swalboski said. “We are going to get it as we go. The more we play the more they will gel as a team.”
Snapp led the Mustangs with five kills, Morley finished with three, Mah posted five kills and three aces and Meghan Adams had three kills.
Anzar has a respite until its next match, which is its Mission Trail Athletic League opener at home against Soledad on Sept. 18. Gilroy hosts Monte Vista Christian School on Friday at 4 p.m.
