The scoreboard buzzed and Campolindo girls rushed in to celebrate another victory against the Acalanes Dons, who prepared for a long bus ride home. Victory against Acalanes is the norm for Campolindo volleyball, but this win was extra sweet.
On October 18th, Campolindo hosted and beat Acalanes in a 3-0 shutout to improve the Cougars record to 15-12.
Prior to this game, Campolindo had suffered their most heartbreaking defeat of the season, as they blew a 2 set lead at home to a less formidable Benicia team.
The last time these two teams met, Campolindo snuck out of Lafayette with a win, only beating Acalanes by 2 points in the 5th set. With this, it was very important for Campolindo to come into the match well prepared.
“Going into this game we knew how they played and how their defense was centered, so we were confident that if we played our game everything else would just fall into place,” said senior captain and setter Rachel Andre.
Even so, Acalanes started the game off somewhat strong, taking an early 3-2 lead, but after a kill from junior Aveya Stone, it seemed like Campolindo had all the momentum. Stone’s kill was the start of 8 consecutive Campolindo points in which Acalanes made many self inflicting errors, while Campo played to near perfection. Campolindo dominated the rest of the set, with each player playing their role at a very high level. Campolindo finally closed out the set 25-12 with an ace from senior captain, Hannah Bjornson.
Campolindo’s great play in the 1st set transferred well into the second set as the Cougars dominated once again. After taking an early 5-4 lead, Campolindo won 12 of the next 13 points, to take a (large) 17-5 lead. Acalanes was not gonna go out without a fight as they got within 6 before Campolindo took control, winning the set 25-16 with a kill from freshman Madeline Carpenter.
The 3rd set was more of the same as Campolindo got out to an early 4-0 lead as Acalanes continued to struggle. For the 3rd straight set, Campolindo created a double digit lead making the big plays along with the necessary ones. Acalanes fought back again, down 21-9 and closing the lead to just 6 before hitting into the net for a 3rd and final set win for the Cougs (25-17).
“Big games like these allow us to experience a similar environment of a playoff game, so this win will hopefully give us a big confidence boost going into NCS,” said Andre.
Campo continued their solid play into their Thursday game, where they beat Northgate 3-1, finishing as league champions once again.
The Cougs hope to transfer this positive momentum into NCS, in which they play their first round game at home against Freedom High on Wednesday, October 25th.
