East Union’s grueling opening week of the season may have done it some good.

The Lancers started strong in Tuesday’s nonleague match at Edison (Stockton) and didn’t let up en route to a 25-11, 25-22, 25-7 sweep. They are coming off a stretch in which they played 10 matches in four days, including eight best-of-three contests in the Central California Classic on Friday and Saturday. This isn’t including their Sept. 2 Foundation Game against West (Tracy).

“It was tough,” East Union coach Rich Posz said. “On the first day of the tournament we played three playoff teams: Escalon, Enochs and Tracy — they were pretty powerful. And on Saturday we went up against San Joaquin Memorial from the Fresno area and that’s a real good team.”

The experienced gained last week carried over onto Tuesday’s match, which East Union dominated from the get-go.

Melissa King paced the Lancers (5-6) with eight kills, five assists and three digs. Haley England chimed in with seven kills to go with a block. Jordyn Posz turned in 23 assists and 10 service points. Destiny Flores rapped out a pair of kills, and among her 12 service points were three aces.

“Seeing the better teams forced us to pass better, and we passed well tonight,” coach Posz said. “All last week we were starting matches sluggishly, but tonight we came out on fire. I was worried that they might be a little bit tired from the weekend but they weren’t, so that was a good sign.”

East Union gets a much deserved break this week compared to its torrid start to the season. Its only other match for the week is a road contest at Los Banos on Thursday.



Ripon Christian 3,
Big Valley Christian 0

In Modesto, Elizabeth Regusci racked up 27 assists and four aces as the Knights (5-1) dispatched Big Valley, 25-17, 25-21, 25-18.

Dani Erdelatz swatted 14 kills, Lauren DeVries came up with two blocks and Rachel Faure led the defense with nine digs.



Weston Ranch 3,
Bear Creek 1

At Bear Creek of Stockton, the visiting Cougars (2-1) prevailed 25-21, 25-22, 17-25, 25-17 behind Victoria Gulley’s 15-kill effort.

Elizabeth Alexander added three blocks and three aces in the win. Jennifer Viguerias collected 14 assists, and Nicole Kudla tallied eight digs.

Weston Ranch’s sophomore team (1-2) lost 10-25, 20-25, while the freshmen moved to 3-0 with their three-game win, 20-25, 25-14, 15-7.



Tracy 3, Manteca 0

The Buffaloes (1-2) were no match for host Tracy, which improved to 8-2 with its 25-16, 25-18, 25-11 sweep.

Alyssa Burch compiled five kills and four blocks to lead Manteca. Setter Beth Achenbrenner recorded 17 assists, and Morgan Miramontes picked up 12 digs.



Sophomore

East Union 2, Edison 1

The Squires came from behind to knock off Edison, 25-27, 25-13, 15-11.

Kassandra Avila and Vanessa Cuellar each pounded three kills to lead the attack, while Valeria Lazo pitched in with three aces.



Freshman

East Union 2, Edison 0

East Union (1-2) notched its first win of the season in dominating fashion, 25-13, 25-9.

Vanessa Garcia had three kills, while Isabel Marmolejo served nine points.