If Monday night’s Valley Oak League opener at Sierra is any indication of how the rest of the season will go, teams and fans alike are in for a wild ride after the Timberwolves battled back from down two sets to defending league champion Manteca to win, 20-25, 29-31, 25-22, 25-18, 15-12.

“That is a really good team over there,” Sierra head coach Danielle Deerinck said. “They got us a couple weeks back (in the Stockton Preseason Classic) after we took a lead on them, so I knew when we went down our girls would keep fighting.”
Manteca (0-1, 3-2) looked every bit the part of the defending VOL champions early on in the match, jumping out to a two-set lead over Sierra (1-0, 2-3). Senior outside hitter Taimane Tu'uga (25 kills) got going early propelling the visitors to a 25-20 win in the opener. The second set saw her fellow hitters Trinity Todd (seven kills) and Aricelli Castillo (six kills) got in on the action, helping the Buffaloes win a 31-29 thriller to force Sierra to the brink in the third set.
“We started tonight with a ton of energy,” Manteca head coach Robin Chandler said. “We were getting our hitters into good positions with some strong serve receive, but unfortunately, we weren’t able to sustain that success and finish them off.”
For Sierra outside hitter Delicia Kivalu-Ahio and the rest of the Timberwolves, it was about getting back to basics down 2-0.
“That second set obviously hurt us, but we knew we weren’t playing that bad,” Kivalu-Ahio said. “We talked a lot about taking things one point at a time knowing if we could get that third set to stay alive momentum would be back on our side.”
Kivalu-Ahio racked up five of her team-high 23 kills in the pivotal third set. Senior outside hitter Hannah Threet (12 kills) picked up where Kivalu-Ahio left off on the fourth set, propelling Sierra to a 25-18 win to force a deciding fifth set.

“Serve receive ended up being the difference in the match,” Deerinck said. “As the match went on, we got better getting our offense in better spots to make plays to put pressure on them.”
Sierra sophomore setter Hannah Dungca tallied 24 assists in the match to lead the Timberwolves.
“Hannah was great tonight,” Kivalu-Ahio said. “We are getting more and more on the same page every game, and she keeps the other defense on their toes and puts the ball right where it needs to be.”
It was only fitting that Kivalu-Ahio and Threet would answer the bell in the fifth set, combining for eight kills to pull away from a 10-10 tie to complete the comeback 15-12 sending Sierra to the top of the league standings.
“We weren’t perfect tonight and have some things we can work on in practice,” Deerinck said. “But at the end of the day, we realize what a win like this means does to the confidence of these girls that now know they can play with anybody.”
For Chandler, Monday’s lesson for the Buffaloes is to keep playing hard.

“You’re going to drop matches in this league; there are some really good teams,” she said. “But the next time we have a team down 2-0, we need to be better at keeping the pressure on them.”
Both teams will be back in action on Wednesday as Sierra travels to Patterson while
Manteca heads down Carpenter road in Modesto to play Central Catholic.

Junior Varsity
Sierra 2, Manteca 1

The Timberwolves squad came roaring back after dropping the opening set 4-25 to win in three, 26-24, 15-12.
“We honestly did not play as bad as that first set score looked,” coach John Estandarte said. “We got them calmed down during the break and they made the adjustments needed to come back in what was a wild match.”
Freshman outside hitter Elliot Jacoby led Sierra with a game high 13 kills.

“Eliot is a great player who is really just figuring things out,” Estandarte said. “The team really fed off of her energy late she was a big reason we were able to come all the way back.”