The Sobrato gym was jumping.
Fans were going crazy: Stomping, cheering, booing, chanting and there was even one “Gold Team rules!” from the crowd.
Every point brought both sides to a fever pitch. Heads were clutched, fists pumped, hugs exchanged, fingers wagged, signed waves and … and it was all for a friendly match. Live Oak won in five: 13-25, 27-29, 25-17, 25-18, 15-13.
Hey, what do you expect when you bring Live Oak and Sobrato together?
And Tuesday’s renewal of the in-town rivalry had the feel of a college game, and the stakes of a playoff game but with none of the actual risk.
The game didn’t count for the standings, but the teams played like there was no tomorrow and both sides came out smiling.
“Yeah we didn’t win, but I really feel like we actually did win” said Sobrato senior Riley Moeder. “… The difference is night and day (from last year) and I feel like that’s really that’s important. I’m so proud of these girls.”
The effort the Sobrato team gave despite the loss was not reminiscent of last year’s squad that struggled to win six games for the season.
“Words can’t really describe how proud I am of their effort,” said coach Teresa Hodges. “That’s something I told them. Whether they won or lost that game, the feeling they had walking off that court knowing they competed, that is the best feeling the could have had.”
Live Oak, meanwhile, was staring a sweep in the face and trailing 15-14 after a five-point Sobrato run, the Acorns rallied and didn’t drop another game.
“I didn’t expect us to play as a team right away,” said Live Oak’s Julieanna Blotz. “But it was the biggest thing for us that we showed that we could do that.”
In the second set, Live Oak enjoyed a 21-16 lead after going on a three-point run.
But thanks to four aces from Moeder, the Bulldogs went ahead 22-21 and the game was on.
Neither sided yielded as the two teams tied six times in the next 13 points where finally, Ellie Downing slammed home a pair of kills to put Sobrato up 2-0.
“If anything we showed we’re not going to roll over. We’re going to fight for every point,” Moeder said.
Moeder had six aces in the second set, accounting for all but eight the team had in the frame.
That came after Sobrato’s first three serves of the match went for errors.
Hodges said it came down to refocusing and it paid off.
“Take a deep breath while you’re back at that line, focus on where you need to serve it and that’s it,” Hodges said. “Everyone knows how to serve, it’s just refocusing on how to do it.”
Live Oak looked out of sorts early, dropping the two games after leading in the beginning. But in the three remaining games, the Acorns rallied late, getting contributions from Lianne Rupp, Lindsay Baker, Bijan Hunt, Aubry Harmel and Blotz to pull away.
“It’s hard to comeback from a two-game loss, especially if you lost that second game so tight, you will usually lose the third,” Coleman said. “For them to not lose the third set was impressive.”
Coleman said she saw that her team was fairly resilient to hang on and win. She said the squad is young, so there will be some growing pains and the rotation isn’t fully fleshed out yet, but Coleman believes it will come together.
It especially helped as setter Mikayla Lacerda got into a rhythm and got her entire offense involved.
“What I thought was nice was she did set everybody, so we didn’t go through the rotation and not get set,” Coleman said. “That keeps everybody in the game. She hustled her butt off. She probably worked more than she’s worked in her life.”
Coleman also said she was happy to see Lacerda set up the 10-foot attack rather than force net play the whole time.
That allowed Blotz to get going, Coleman said, with an attack from the back row.
In the fifth set, Live Oak trailed 8-3 early thanks to the serving of Sobrato’s Kelsey Gunsky, who put away back-to-back aces.
But Live Oak got kills from Baker, Blotz and Hunt to pull even at 11-all.
And despite an into-the-net call and a hitting error to fall down 13-11, the Acorns got the next four points.
Hunt started the comeback with a key kill and Blotz tied the game with a kill of her own.
Rupp followed with a kill to allow Live Oak to serve match point setting up Blotz to take a mighty swing into the Sobrato block. The ball hit the two-girl wall and fell harmlessly on to the floor.
“Mikayla (Lacerda) told me to run the floor and I was ready. I just kind of swung my hardest,” Blotz said with a huge grin on her face.
Coleman was pleased with the way Rupp played in her first varsity game, getting called up after two years on junior varsity.
“I actually like her in the middle, so we might work on that a bit,” Coleman said. “… If we get her going, we’re going to be good.”
Sobrato had a similar takeaway with its bench after seeing strong efforts from Downing, Gunsky, Stephanie Cloughesy and Jenna Fields to match the play by seniors Moeder, Kennedie Schilling and Anya Weislak along with junior Siena Schilling.
“The fact that I feel like I can turn to the bench and call any one of them up and feel confidence in them, it’s fantastic,” Hodges said. “I feel good about it. I feel confident in my bench.”
Live Oak played Menlo on Thursday to officially kick off the season. Meanwhile, Sobrato went down to Christopher to open things up.
