Chris Deem held up his hand his during a substitution. Dan Adams
had to jump high into the air to reach it. Deem, who stands at
6-foot-8, likes to pump up his smaller teammates like Adams, who
tops the charts at 5-foot-7, by making them leap. And it has worked
this season.
Chris Deem held up his hand his during a substitution. Dan Adams had to jump high into the air to reach it.
Deem, who stands at 6-foot-8, likes to pump up his smaller teammates like Adams, who tops the charts at 5-foot-7, by making them leap. And it has worked this season.
“It is just a way to build team unity,” Deem said. “Different teams have different ways of building team unity. It’s just a thing we have going of giving each other a high high-five.”
The Live Oak High boys volleyball team defeated Hollister-San Benito, 25-23, 24-26, 25-19, 27-25 Wednesday evening to clinch the Tri-County Athletic League title with three games to go for the second consecutive season.
San Benito (10-14, 6-5 TCAL) has taken six league matches to five games this season, while Live Oak (23-3, 11-0 TCAL) has had just one match go to five games – at Seaside. Live Oak won the first match against San Benito in three games.
“This one had me a little worried,” said Live Oak coach James Uthes. “Overall, they were much improved. They did an awesome job blocking, and their hitting was much better than the first game.”
Cameron Bassett had 12 kills and Royce Newcomb had nine for the Acorns. Peter Prak and Nathan Thome led the Balers with seven kills each. Thome had six aces as well.
San Benito had a tough time with the Acorns’ height. Deem had 15 kills — many of which were on short sets and almost impossible to block. When Deam wasn’t pounding it down, the other outside hitters got it done for the Acorns.
San Benito’s Tomas Rebecchi, at 6-foot-3, was able to come up with a couple key blocks. On one attempted block, Deem’s hit was so hard it drew blood from Rebecchi’s nose. After a timeout, Rebecchi was able to come back.
In the second game, the Balers took a 3-0 lead right away. But that was as close as they could get until Peter Prak came up with a couple big kills late.
San Benito took leads of 20-18 and 24-22, forcing Live Oak to call a timeout each time. Rebecchi had a kill on a short set and then combined with Jeff Hawks for a block to put the game away.
“That is the way we were trying to play at the start of the year,” Mao said. “Nobody gave up, and everyone hustled.”
Hawks, as setter, had several one-time touches over the net.
“That was real cheesy,” Uthes said. “We didn’t come here prepared to play that type of game.”
In the third game, the Balers looked like they briefly had figured Deem out. Rebecchi and Thome combined for a block on him, Rebecchi had a kill through Deem’s hand and then had another block on Deem to get the Balers within 11-8. But Live Oak built up a seven-point lead and was able to hold on for the easiest victory of the match.
Live Oak also held off rallies in the first and fourth games.
In the first game, Live Oak was up 24-18 before San Benito almost came back. Thome dropped in a couple aces, and Live Oak called a timeout. After the timeout, the Balers were called for a net violation for the final point.
In the fourth game, the Acorns were up 13-7 before San Benito came back to send the game to overtime.
Live Oak is scheduled to host Salinas on Friday.
