STOCKTON – Vanessa Benham and Carlee Mahurin combined to notch 13 aces for Sierra on Tuesday in a 25-11, 25-19, 25-16 sweep over host Franklin in non-league volleyball action.

“The adrenaline from the start of the game always gets me going,” Benham said. “And I think we played really well together today and I hope we keep doing the same thing for all our games to come.

“The sweep felt good. It really brings our confidence up.”

After falling behind 3-0 in the first set, Benham (four kills, two blocks) took over at the service line with the Timberwolves (1-0) trailing 5-3. She got all five of her aces in an eight-point run and Sierra never trailed the rest of the set.

“She is one of our captains this year,” Timberwolves coach Trinity Johnson said of Benham. “So she is a leader both on the court and off the court for this group.

“She can help us get momentum.”

Mahurin added eight aces with three coming in the last set.

“I just tried to serve to the spots my coach tells me too,” Mahurin said. “But in the last set she left it up to me, so the last three I got on my own.”

Alexus Surnip added four aces for pinpoint-serving Sierra and Lindsey Walljasper (two kills) had three.

“We have been working a lot on serving,” Johnson said. “Serving can be the game-changer in volleyball, so we have been focusing on making sure we have our serves down.”

The Timberwolves fell behind in all three games, and had to fight harder as the night went on. In the second game as in the first, Sierra’s first lead was at 6-5, but in the second game the Yellowjackets (0-1) tied the game three more times. The final game was tied six times with the last one being at 11-11.

Sophomore

Sierra 2, Franklin 0

Teresa Benham was a huge asset at the service line for the Timberwolves with 11 service points in a 25-3, 25-6 Sierra win.

Freshman

Sierra 2, Franklin 0

Natalie Dias had 16 service points for the Timberwolves and Stella Brierly 11for Sierra in the 25-11, 25-10 road win,