What started out as a spirited Valley Oak League opener between rival schools ended in a rout, as visiting Sierra downed East Union 23-25, 25-17, 25-23, 25-11 Monday at Dalben Center.
Primo Estandarte served nine straight points to give the Timberwolves (1-0 VOL, 6-4 overall) match point, picking up two of his three aces along the way. His 10th serve hit the net to end the run, but Owen Altadonna put it away with a kill.
These two teams previously met last weekend in the Stockton Classic. It was the fourth match of the day for both, and it was East Union (0-1, 6-9) that snuck away with a two-set sweep.
“In the Classic, a lot of us tired and hurt,” Altadonna said. “Here, we came in with a lot of energy and wanted to get (revenge).”
Altadonna helped lead the Timberwolves’ balanced front-row production with 11 kills and six blocks. David Caamano added 10 kills, three blocks and six digs. Xavier Gaspar racked up 11 kills and five blocks.
“We had them on their toes the entire match,” Altadonna said. “We were hitting every single option. It was really impressive.”
Sierra did well to rally back after botching the opening set. The T’wolves were ahead 22-18 following a block from Altadonna. East Union answered with four straight points to tie it, the last two coming on consecutive aces from Cash Galvez.
Jai Aquino’s kill gave the Lancers their 24th point, and a Sierra hitting error locked up game 1 for the home side.
The Timberwolves responded with a dominant second set, breaking away with seven-point service run (with two aces) from Santino Flores to make it 22-13. Caamano finished the set with a scoring block.
East Union momentarily regained momentum to start the third set, leading 8-1 when Benni Estrada capped a five-point run with an ace.
Sierra clawed back and tied it at 16-16 on a Caamano kill. The Lancers later went ahead 23-21 when Antonio Yanez and Landon Wolfe combined to stuff Flores. The rest of the points belonged to Sierra, with Estandarte clinching the pivotal third set with another ace.
Sierra coach Amy Rosendin was pleased to see the fight in her team to battle back from deficits, but was especially glad to see it end the match strong after building a 12-6 advantage in the fourth game.
“I’m proud of them, because sometimes we have issues with thinking we’ve won (a set), and then we let our foot off the gas,” Rosendin said. “That’s kind of what happened in that first set. We have to realize that we are playing against some strong teams and they can all come back. The same thing happened to us when we played them in the tournament. We ended up losing in two sets, and they were not going to let that happened tonight. They showed that from the second set on to the end.”
Estandarte finished with 20 assists, and Austin Kim led the defense with 11 digs. Jai Aquino paced East Union with eight kills, and Braulio Reyes had six. Estrada and Galvez each totaled four aces.
Junior varsity
Sierra 2, East Union 1
The Timberwolves battled back for the 21-25, 25-19, 15-10 victory.
Yatharath Katyal led the way with four kills, three blocks and two aces. Jonathan Lawas contributed three kills and three aces. Landon West registered five blocks, while Gurshan Singh handed out 10 assists.
Gabe Holguin compiled five kills and two blocks for East Union. Ian Wilcox chipped in 10 service points, three aces and three kills. Tyler Dobbins (three aces) and Klaio Simpao set 10 assists apiece. Gabe Torres (three aces) and Guadalupe Reyes fired five kills each.
