Volleyball Cruises in NCS Opener
October 26, 2018
The girls’ varsity volleyball team defeated Vallejo’s Bethel Jaguars in the 1st round of the North Coast Section (NCS) Championships at home on October 24. The Cougars won in straight sets, 25-10, 25-14, and 25-18.
The Cougars are the #1 seed, and will have home-court advantage throughout the championships.
The Jaguars closed within 3 points, 7-4 in the 2nd set, but that was as close as they would get.
In spite of the score, head coach John Vuong note that the Cougars were not at their best. “We didn’t play our best game today,” he said. “We practiced well yesterday but today, we came out very slow and they kind of [went] through the motions. Hopefully, the energy will pick up and we’ll play with a purpose and play with intensity. Tonight, we didn’t quite pull it out.”
Sophomore middle hitter Erin Thomas agreed. “I think we definitely could have played better. I think that after we won the 1st set, we got a little overconfident and we didn’t think we had to work as hard. We definitely could have beat them by more if we tried,” she said.
1 highlight of the game for junior setter Audrey Pak was that “a lot of different people got to play and different people did good things. I think [sophomore outside hitter] Nicole Kennedy did a good job coming in and doing well, and [senior setter] Dalilah Wiseman served really well; she got an ace,” she said.
Sophomore defensive specialist Brianna Lee played libero in the 3rd set, taking over for senior Sarah Carrasco. According to Lee, her coaches wanted her to get more experience and “take control of the back row.”
Lee said that her team played “pretty well.”
“Hopefully we can come out with more heart,” said Lee. “[Our coach] said that we need to want it more and that not everybody gets this opportunity, so it’s really special for us.”
The Cougars will face #9 seeded Casa Grande on October 27 at home in the quarterfinals.
“I’m just looking forward to having 2 more days of practice with the team and we get to play another team that we haven’t seen before, so it’s nice to see how we adapt,” said Thomas.
“We have to do a lot better [in our next games],” Pak said. “I think in our next practices, we’ll just work a lot harder. The goal is to win [NCS], but we’ll see.”
