The Back-and-forth, give and-take continued throughout the
two-and-a-half hour match that needed the maximum five sets to
determine a winner during Tuesday night in Gilroy.
Thirty times the Christopher High and Seaside High varsity volleyball teams were tied.
The back-and-forth, give and-take continued throughout the two-and-a-half hour match that needed the maximum five sets to determine a winner during Tuesday night in Gilroy.
The two Monterey Bay League foes were deadlocked as late as 14-14 in the winner-take-all, first-to-15, final set, before Seaside, the defending league champs, delivered two straight points to outlast the upstart Cougars in a heart-pounding thriller 25-19, 22-25, 24-26, 25-21, 16-14.
“I underestimated our team, I really did. I was hopeful that we would go to four, at least have some positive feelings from it. But they by far exceeded my expectations,” CHS head coach Tom Schatz said. “Now having said that, we had a couple players make some crucial mental errors. Physical errors happen, but mental errors, we can’t have that. We have to fix those.”
The Cougars (12-7, 3-2 MBL) trailed the fifth set 5-1 but rolled off four consecutive points using a Claudia Ferreira and Aly Olvera kills, plus an Olvera ace. The teams traded points util Alex Gerberick and Michelle Toves gave the Cougars a 13-11 lead via a kill and ace, respectively. But behind sophomore Anela Visesio the Spartans registered four of the next five points, including three kills from Visesio, to pull out the victory.
“We tried to key on Anela, she got some kills on us, but for the most part I felt like we definitely slowed her down – especially through the first four and a half sets,” Schatz said. “It kept building our confidence. They are going to score points no matter who it is.”
Seaside took Game 1, in relatively calm fashion. The Cougars overcame a late five-point deficit in Game 2 to even the match and survived a wild, entertaining third set to take a two-sets-to-one lead.
The Spartans (12-4, 4-1 MBL) sent the match into the fifth set with a 25-21 win in Game 4.
“I told them that the fourth set was theirs to lose,” Schatz said. “And we did. We were forced to play catch up the whole time.”
Hanna Tabron led the way with seven blocks and 12 kills – both team highs. Merrett Brown contributed nine kills and five blocks, Olvera had seven kills and Ferreira and Paulina Vo-Griffin each had six. Dejah Raoof had four aces.
The Cougars schedule doesn’t get any easier as they travel to face first-place Watsonville – the lone undefeated team remaining in the MBL – on Thursday.
