The Manteca and East Union volleyball teams split their first two sets Wednesday before the visiting Lancers atoned for an earlier season sweep and pulled away to win the next two for a 25-21, 24-26, 25-22, 25-17 win in Valley Oak League action at Winter Gymnasium.

“It is a small tight gym and the crowd is right there,” East Union coach Rich Posz said. “But we usually play pretty well here.

“The girls were hungry for getting them back because they beat us at our house – they swept us in three – so we had some motivation to come here and prove that we could come back.”

Amy Gann led the Lancers (4-3 VOL, 10-11 overall) with 27 digs, 14 service points and three aces. Melissa King had 16 service points with five aces and along with Jordyn Posz (10 service points) had 19 assists. Haley England  had 12 kills, Edmi Lopez nine, Mariah Jeffery (five blocks) six with Taylor Ward getting 24 digs and four service points with two aces.

Despite impressive individual totals, Manteca coach Kevin Bolding said that those totals just were not quite enough.

“Tonight was just not our night,” Bolding said. “The games were good games but we just could not get it done.”

Alyssa Burch and Morgan Mitamontes (18 digs) each had 10 kills for the Buffaloes (4-3, 6-6). Beth Aschenbrenner had 30 assists and nine digs, Melissa Hansen 28 digs, Taylor Bays 16 digs, Jasmine Basuil 14 digs, Mildred Perez six kills and five blocks and Aryana Martinez six digs.



Trans-Valley League

Escalon 3, Ripon 2

In Ripon, the Indians (1-2, 11-6) came oh so close from knocking off Escalon in a 21-25, 25-23, 16-25, 25-17, 11-15 loss.

Escalon (3-0, 15-6) kept Ripon busy on the defensive end, as Breana Barrios and Jacqui Uecker accumulated seven blocks each. Emily O’Brien picked up 29 digs. Lauren Weibe set 23 assists, and Sam McCreath doled out 13 kills.

“A really tough loss for us tonight,” Ripon coach Adrienne Beltrami said. “We went five with them and that is honorable, especially against a good team, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less. It actually hurts more when you are so close to clinching the win.”