Sobrato faces former TCAL foe and sweeps its way to victory
Gilroy – Before the season, Sobrato High girls volleyball coaches Rosemary and Kevin Miller both said they were disappointed to not be playing in the Tri-County Athletic League anymore because they wished to exact revenge on all the teams that beat them during their 0-12 campaign last season.
The Bulldogs, now playing in the Blossom Valley Athletic League, got their opportunity to face former TCAL foe Gilroy in a non-league game Wednesday and took advantage with a resounding 25-20, 25-22, 25-21 win over the Mustangs.
“I told the girls this game is payback,” head coach Rosemary Miller said. “This is the only game we see (a TCAL team). Those girls are ready now.”
Gilroy (5-6) won both its matches against Sobrato (2-3) last season, sweeping them in three games at home and earning a 3-1 win in the league finale at Sobrato. But that experience only made Tuesday’s 3-0 win even sweeter.
“It shows how hard we’ve been working and that our hard work paid off that we play a team that last year killed us and we can come and give a fight and beat them,” said Jordyn Hanne, the Bulldogs lone senior. “It feels good that this year we can be the ones that can sweep and not get swept.”
Early on, the match had the look of another Gilroy win. The Mustangs took a 17-10 lead in the first game, before Sobrato rallied back. The Bulldogs scored six straight points, highlighted by an ace by Hanne, who lead a balance Sobrato attack with seven kills.
Gilroy eventually responded to take a 20-17 lead, but the Bulldogs finished the game on a 8-0 run to take the advantage in the match.
The Mustangs jumped to a quick start again in the second match and held a 4-1 lead. But six straight points for Sobrato, including two aces by junior setter Nicole Simoneau, erased that deficit and the Bulldogs wouldn’t trail the rest of the way.
Sobrato could sense the win entering the third game and wasted little time getting itself the victory. The Bulldogs never trailed and got to match point by tying its biggest lead of the night at 24-18.
Gilroy kept itself alive by scoring three straight points, one coming when Hanne was slightly over aggressive and fired a potential kill well past the back line.
“We had to really just bring it back down to basics and run what we do in practice and not think about it and just do what we know how to do,” Hanne said of controlling their emotions while on the verge of winning.
Sobrato finally sealed the win when a Mustangs return of a Simoneau hit shot wide and into the bleachers to end the match.
“This is just building confidence,” Rosemary Miller said. “They lost everything last year so you’ve got to build that steam back up. And that’s a hard thing to do.”
The win over an “A” League opponent also figures to be a big boost for Sobrato as it prepares for competition in the “C” League play of the BVAL’s West Valley Division.
“We try to get the best competition we possibly can so when we get to league, they’re better,” assistant coach Kevin Miller said. “We know we went through stumbling blocks at the beginning but we try to tell the girls that. This is what we learned. Because if we don’t play up, we can’t get any better.”
Gilroy coach Sue Grogan said the difference between this year’s Sobrato team and the one it played last year was big, pointing to the fact that about half of the Bulldogs played club volleyball during the offseason while only two of her players did so.
“They’ve done incredible work with their teams,” Grogan said of Sobrato’s coaching staff. “They did a great job.”
Sophomore Laura Billos also contributed six kills to the win and junior Cheyene Hambey had five while Simoneau dished out 13 assists.
The Bulldogs junior varsity team also kept up its winning ways, improving to 4-1 with a 25-17, 25-13 win over the Mustangs.
