With veteran middle blocker Karlie Spohn nursing a sore hamstring, junior right-side hitter Courtney Washburn has filled that starting spot more than admirably for Manteca.
On Thursday, the 6-foot Washburn came up with clutch plays at the net during a competitive first set against an up-and-coming Sierra club and played a big role in the Buffaloes’ 25-23, 25-18, 25-17 sweep that keeps them undefeated in the Valley Oak League.
Washburn finished with a match-high 13 kills to go with three blocks. Earlier this week, she racked up seven blocks and six kills in a sweep of Oakdale, sliding to the middle after Spohn was sidelined in the opening set.
“Courtney stepped up and has been phenomenal,” Manteca coach Robin Chandler said. “She has experience playing middle in club. She played great tonight and was on fire against Oakdale.”
Manteca (7-0 VOL, 19-2 overall) had trouble matching the energy of the visiting Timberwolves (2-2, 4-4) to start. Zoe Kossart clobbered kill to give Sierra an 11-8 lead in Game 1, causing Chandler to call a timeout.
It was back-and-forth until the end when outside hitter Adrianna Powell (eight kills, 14 digs) and Washburn locked it up for the Buffs by accounting for their final four points.
After digs from Camrenne Genilla and Abbey Kadillak (39 digs), Powell capped the best rally of the match with a scoring spike to tie it at 22-22 and had another kill to make it 24-22. Washburn added a block during that finishing run and ended the set with a kill.
“They have a lot of scrappiness and have all areas on the court covered,” Chandler said of Sierra, a team without seniors but with much promise. “They’re a good team.”
Sierra carried the intensity into the second game and led 14-12 at one point following g a kill from Sophia Marian. Manteca later seized control of the game and ultimately the match, closing the second with a 6-2 burst punctuated by a tip from sophomore middle Izabella Sanchez (five kills, four blocks).
The third set was all Buffaloes, to jumped out to an 8-2 advantage and held the largest lead of the match at 12-3 after Leilani Rios (four kills) put away a Sierra overpass. Orchestrating the Manteca attack throughout was setter Arielle Chandler, who finished with 31 assists.
“Manteca is a very strong team, so the girls knew that they needed to have high energy the whole time,” Brooks said. “It wasn’t to our highest potential and our passing struggled a little bit. Once Manteca got the feel for everything it just kind of got in our head a little bit and we had a hard time coming back.”
Elise Vaifale (five kills), Rebecca Thomson (15 assists), Ciara Jene Castro (nine digs) and Jenna Dalen (eight digs) stood out for the T-wolves, who have three league matches to make up. They’ve struggled with COVID-19 protocols all season, limiting valuable court time.
“It definitely affects us,” Brooks said. “By no means am I blaming the loss today on that, but it has affected us. Our practices are thrown off. Not only have we been totally out (as a team) for a while, we’ve had several practices with one or two girls missing. It’s a curveball, but they’re strong and they’ll come back.”
Junior varsity
Manteca 2, Sierra 0
Carsyn Van Zant’s six kills and two blocks highlighted the 25-12, 25-12 win for Manteca (5-2,
5-2, 8-3).
Ava Negranza handed out 12 assists, and Genesis Mailangi contributed three kills.
Freshman
Manteca 2, Sierra 0
The Buffaloes did much of their damage from the service line en route to a 25-15, 25-7 sweep.
Nicole Ayala, Aaliyah Jacobs and Rylee Eberle tallied five aces apiece. Jayana Dias and Amil Gaskins each had three kills.
