Continued from Part 1.
Set 3
I suddenly noticed
that the silver-haired girl from the Soccer team was sitting on the floor
behind the court. Unfortunately, I
noticed this as she was leaving. Some
guys from the Football team moved into the area she vacated. I wonder if they got to meet her like they
wanted to the other night. Also departing, a little girl left with her
mother. The little girl wobbled all the
way down court like she’d just drank a six-pack. She eventually fell over, but mom was right
there for her.
Early in the set, Maggie Lightheart dove for a ball on
the sidelines nearby. I kinda hoped
she’d land on me, but that might have taken me out for the rest of the
match. (Worth it.) Kacia Brown
made an overpass kill for White to tie the score at 2. Sydney
McIntosh made a block to give Crimson a 5-2 lead. Later, Maggie made a dig in the backcourt and
nobody was covering for the pass. The
ball dropped in the middle of the court.
Glad I didn’t see Coach Jordan
on that one.
8-6 Ashley Herman made a crosscourt kill
for White. Maggie came back with a kill
off her back foot for Crimson. Anji Vishwanathan dunked one to make it
12-7 Crimson. Ryleigh Whitekettle and Aleka
Darko answered with a block for White.
Coach Jordan spoke up, “That was big time.” He liked it.
13-10 Rilen Garcia put in a
dump shot for a point for Crimson. The
coach spoke up again. “That happened
because you weren’t talking. You’re
being quiet as church mice.” (I’ll put
in, “Heads up play, Rilen.”)
The energy and
intensity picked up in the match visibly.
Jacqueline Gomez-Gallegos and
Anji combined on a block for a 22-15 Crimson lead. The girls were pumped. Sydney and Anji finished the set with a pair
of kills. 25-20 Crimson.
Set 4
A good deal of the
crowd left at this point. A girl with
bright violet and blue hair left. She
was probably why I didn’t notice the girl with silver hair, because she had
been next to her. (Not a hair
critique. It looked good and she was
cute. It was probably really expensive
to do that hairstyle.)
There was another
reshuffle of personnel. I’m not sure if
I’m correctly designating which team was which.
The girls weren’t changing jerseys.
Peyton started the set with an ace off the tape for Crimson. Starr Williams
answered with a crosscourt kill. Mia
buried one for White to tie it at 2. White
ran off three points to put them ahead 5-3.
I noticed the server kept aiming at Ryleigh. She got revenge by ending a long rally with a
kill. Maggie and Kaylee Peterson both had off court saves for White on the
play.
7-5 Crimson, Ashley
put in a kill down the line. 11-8 Maggie
took another tumble going for a ball again.
She was really selling out. Coach Whitis talked to Peyton Castillo before she served, “You
can do it if you want, if you got the guts.
You nervous?” She served into the
net. Yep. The White team started a comeback. Ryleigh got a kill. Another kill took out two defenders. Coach Whitis nearly had a seizure. White surged to the lead. Ryleigh put down a very authoritative
kill. Starr tooled a block to end a long
rally. 18-13 White. Timeout.
There was an in/out question on the last point. That’s what you get for not having refs.
The White team was
first to 20 on a nice dump shot by Aspen.
Crimson began a comeback. Aleka
and Mari Sharp had kills. Peyton beautifully set Ryleigh for a kill for
Crimson to make it 21-16. (Wait, was
Ryleigh playing on both sides of the net?
There isn’t anyone else on the team that looks like her and I’m pretty
sure I have the scoring right. The Coach
might have been switching her around during the timeout.) 22-18 Maggie scored for the White with a kill
into a block.
23-20 White,
Ryleigh surprised herself with a tip kill for Crimson. (She either didn’t mean to do it or didn’t
think it would work.) 24-21 Crimson
fought off match point on a kill by Ashley.
Crimson took the next point as Kaylee and Bella Castro collided
at the net diving for a ball. The next
point tied the set at 24. Timeout. It was like the girls wanted to keep
playing. The Crimson took the next point
as they called Starr’s swing out. (I
don’t think I’d let the opposition make line calls on my shots.) The match ended with Kacia making a kill and
taking the set for Crimson 26-24. The team Twitter reported that the match was
a 2-2 tie. I have no idea if that’s really right. It’s fine.
Keeping in mind
that Coach has probably made most of the decisions on starters and preferred
reserves, and that he was just giving everyone play time, I’ll give some
thoughts. First, I’m missing some people
from last year. Taylor Snow was a block party at the net. I think injuries hampered Katie Birtcil as the season went on,
but she was a star. Molly Johnson really came on late in the season to lead the team. This years’ team needs players to step up
into these roles. (I’m also missing Cat Kelly, even if she wasn’t playing.)
Maggie Lightheart
was playing very hard and has a good physical build. I don’t know if the coach will use her this
year, but I think she’ll have a future with the team. I was heartened to see Ashley Herman getting kills.
Maybe she’ll work into the rotation this year. Kacia
Brown, Anji Vishwanathan, Mari Sharp, Aleka Darko, and Sidney
McIntosh all have some good pop and block.
Kacia seems like the best of this group.
Ryleigh Whitekettle and Starr Williams have the physical
presence to be stars. Do they have the
experience? I expect opposing teams to
be keying on them. Can they handle the
focus?
For libero, Darian Markham is the senior and an
on-court leader and has done a great job, but I only noticed her playing a
couple of times. Was she hurt? Does she already have the job and the coach
just wanted to look at the other girls?
Oddly compared to past years, they’re a little thin at the DS
position. I think Morgan Stewart and Kaylee
Peterson will work well as serving subs.
(I know the coach likes Kaylee, though that doesn’t necessarily
translate to playing time.) Overall,
serving looked okay in this match, but it has been a bug-a-boo in past
seasons. We hope there’s someone who can
take Rylee Fey’s place as an ace
machine.
As for setter, I
don’t think there will be drama this year. Logically, Aspen Aldous should be the main.
I think she also gives you a blocker at the net. I thought Peyton Castillo looked good setting. Bianca
Perez did a good job last year as a freshman and should only get better as
long as her hand is right. Rilen Garcia persevered so heroically
last year. I know the coach is impressed
with her and her increase in skills. She
did a good job serving this evening. I’d
hate to have to choose here (because there will be hurt feelings), but at least
there are four good options.
Coach Jordan was
pleased afterward in an interview, so I’m happy. After running low on hitters and setters over
the last two years, I hope the team is at least well-staffed now. This team needs to replace some lost skills
from last year and success in that will only be apparent in competition. In the meantime, they’ve got talent for
sure. I’m looking forward to seeing how
this shakes out.
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