Chelsea Herrera and her East Union girls volleyball team are looking forward to a little break before its next match.
On Thursday, the Lancers swept visiting Lathrop 25-19, 25-14, 25-14 to come away with their opening stretch of the new season with a winning record. It was their fourth match in as many days — the Foundation Game against West on Monday does not count toward records — and fifth in the last seven.
Herrera, with heightened expectations for her club, squeezed as many matches as she could before the start of Valley Oak League play and wants to expose the Lancers (3-1) to good competition. They were coming off a five-set loss to Lincoln of Stockton from the Division-I Tri-City Athletic League.
“We have to,” Herrera said. “Our league is tough. We have one of the toughest leagues around and we have to be ready for them. We’re trying to play D-I schools, higher-level volleyball.”
East Union has the look of a postseason contender after coming up short the past three years, and Herrera has reason for optimism after the Lancers thumped the Western Athletic Conference runner-up. Savannah LeBarre led the charge with eight kills, 11 digs and nine aces, while Miekayla Surnip added six kills, two blocks, five digs and five aces.
Reigning WAC Offensive Player of the Year Jahsita Fa’ali’i turned in 10 kills, seven aces and 17 digs for the Spartans. Jennifer Santillan dished out 11 assists, Hailey Hunter collected 13 digs and Sydney Hanks contributed two blocks and two aces.
It was the season opener for Lathrop.
“We had a rough night and we didn’t pass well,” Lathrop coach Heather Anderson said. “Passing is the foundation of an offense, so when you don’t pass well everything else falls apart. East Union’s a good team, but we didn’t give ourselves a chance.”
The Spartans had a chance to steal the opening set after trailing by as much as seven early on thanks to East Union miscues — six of Lathrop’s first eight points were freebies from missed serves.
“We went from having six (serving errors) last night in five games to six in one game,” Herrera said.
Then Fa’ali’i caught fire from the service line. She came through with five consecutive aces to draw the Lancers in 16-15 and forced Herrera to call a timeout, which effectively slowed her roll. Fa’ali’i’s next serve hit the net, and East Union regained control.
The Lancers limited the errors over the next two sets and dominated the back half of both. Late in the third, LeBarre dug a thudding spike from Fa’ali’i, and Surnip emphatically punctuated the sequence with a kill to give them a 19-12 lead.
They’ll look to keep it going next Tuesday at Ripon for the first of three matches in the week. Meanwhile, Lathrop hosts Ceres for its first WAC match of the season.
“We have lots of growing to do, they’re young, but as a whole they get along with each other really well, they’re hungry and they’ll do anything to win,” Herrera said.