Serving saves sluggish Sobrato

Sobrato came out sluggish but finished with a flurry.
After falling 25-21 in the first game, the Bulldogs had three runs of 10 or more to defeat the Bruins in four sets.
The Bulldogs went on to win 25-17, 25-17, 25-8.
“I guess we wanted to fight today. I guess today everyone said let’s go in, this is the end of the season almost. We just wanted to kill it,” said Kennedie Schilling, who broke out with 14 kills.
Samantha Nydam paved the way with her 17 kills, providing a deadly one-two punch that helped to take the game over.
But after the first game, serving really set the tone.
“We made our own mistakes in the first game. There were a lot of hitting errors, some serving errors. They hit the ball over the net and let us make our own mistakes,” coach Nicole Simoneau said.
Riley Moeder had a serving run of 12 straight points in a 13-0 run in the second game. She had three aces in the stretch. In Game 3, Miranda Wertz took the Bulldogs on a 10-0 run with nine service points, including three aces.
Finally, Jordan Westall led Sobrato in the back breaker with 17 service points in an 18-0 run. She had four aces in the stretch.
The Bulldogs nearly pulled out a win in Game 1 despite the mistakes. They tied the game at 17 all, but 14 hitting errors, serving errors and fouls ultimately did Sobrato in.
Things looked bad in Set 2 as well when the Bulldogs fell behind 13-10.
But a kill from Schilling set off a 13-point run that put the game out of reach.
She had three kills, Nydam had two and Moeder added her three aces.
Nydam put the game away with an ace for the 25^th point.
Sobrato didn’t give Branham any hope in the third set.
Wertz took the ball in Sobrato’s second serve with the game tied 1-1 and took the game over.
Her four aces mixed with two kills from Nydam put the Bulldogs up 11-1.
Nydam extended the lead a short time later with a serving run as well, though hers just covered five service points. But she still had three aces in the stretch to put Sobrato up 19-9.
Casey Hendricks put the game away with a pair of aces in a 4-0 run for the 25-17 win.
The fourth game, Sobrato put together a killer combo that drained the life from the Bruins.
Nydam exploded for four kills, Schilling had two kills, Westall had four aces, Hendricks had a kill and Siena Schilling had two kills in a 16-0 scoring run that saw Sobrato find its killer instinct.
“The energy was way better in the last three games than the first one. I think we were a little dead, a little sleepy coming into the game,” Simoneau said.
Sobrato is on the road against Evergreen Valley Thursday and will return home Tuesday against Leland for senior night.
The game will determine who will finish in second in the Mt. Hamilton Division.
Both teams have three losses, with each squad losing twice to the undefeated in BVAL play Westmont. Sobrato’s third loss came against Leland.
Leland is playing Leigh Thursday. Leigh handed the Chargers their second loss in league.
First serve is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Sobrato gym.