Live Oak volleyball to ride experience into new season

Live Oak’s volleyball team will just pick up where it left off last year.
The Acorns graduated just three seniors last year and lost a fourth girl who was a foreign exchange student, setting up a crop of five girls who will command the top dog status this year. With them are 11 others who will be sophomores and juniors returning from the varsity and junior varsity ranks, including key weapons that could carry them far in 2013.
Live Oak is looking to improve on its 14-17 overall record and boost its 5-9 Mt. Hamilton Division finish.
The Lady Acorns were young last year, especially at some key positions including setter.
Head Coach James Uthes said the girls need to keep focused during the games and should do fine.
Team captain Kate Guzman added the additional maturity a year brings should help stay in games despite the score.
“A lot of times we would get down on ourselves and not be able to get back. So I guess (we need) to stay head strong,” Guzman said. “I know we can do it. I think we’re going to be very capable.”
That focus is going to come through a strong rapport everyone on the team has with one another.
“Our whole team is basically like each other’s second family,” said senior Morgan Victor. “We just get along very well. There’s no one that is way better than anyone else, so we all kind of complement each other.”
Live Oak will have to contend with Westmont, who lost just one game in league. The dark horse is going to be Branham, who moved up from the Santa Teresa “B” Division after rolling to a 13-1 league record.
Some of the other schools graduated a fair number of seniors, especially cross-town rival Sobrato.
Guzman said she will also keep an eye on Leland, who took second in league with a 10-4 record.
“It’s always exciting to play Leland because I feel they’re always good at something,” Guzman said.
The Acorns are also bringing back their top sophomore servers from last year. The duo of Alexis Budde and Courtney Borja each had serving percentages just under 90 percent.
“Courtney is hitting hard as always,” Uthes said.
Budde had an all around solid year kicking off the team’s attacks, also recording 633 assists as the team’s setter.
“She’s improved so much since last year from what I saw in camp,” Uthes said.
Budde said her confidence has swelled since last year, saying that it all comes down to communication between her and the other players and not getting down on herself.
“If I ever made a mistake, there was no hard feelings, nothing that would bring me down. Especially when something great happened, everyone was cheering and the adrenaline was pumping. I think mostly when we’re in a game setting and there’s mistakes made, it doesn’t feel like a mistake anymore.”
Blocking may be a little bit of an issue for the Acorns, but Uthes has a few girls he’s looking at to fill the role.
“I think we’re going to work on that this year,” Uthes said.
He added that, “It wasn’t (bad), but you can always improve on blocking.”
Victor, however, heaped praise on the girls likely to defend at the net. Last year, Renee Rhoads and Hartman combined for 68 of the team’s 117 total blocks. Rhoads led the team in assists while Hartman led the team in solo blocks.
“They get the most blocks combined, I think, on any team I’ve seen before. They’re very aggressive and I think we’re very lucky to have them on the team.”
The one area Live Oak will need to improve will be defense, as their main line graduated last year. All three seniors accounted for more than half of the total team digs. Two of the girls themselves had 40 percent of the digs for the team.
The defense also helps to set up the setter with their passing that initiates the offense.
Uthes will rely on Guzman to take the helm of the defense.
“If we have solid passing, which I believe we do this year, the setter’s job is going to be easy,” Uthes said. “If the setter’s job is easy, then the hitting is easy. It’s a domino effect. If you have (bad) passing, the setter has to run for her life to set, it’s not really as good.”
The Acorns will have to bring up two new outside hitters, as the primary attackers on last year’s team were both seniors.
Julie Blotz could be one of the girls who will step into that role.
Guzman said she is excited by the prospect of having Blotz driving home attacks.
“It looks like she’s going to come out this year and do really well. It looks like she’s improved a lot,” Guzman said. “So I’m really excited to watch her.”
Borja should also team up with Hartman to provide a solid punch for the Acorns.
Live Oak will open up with a pair of tournaments the first two weekends of September. This will give Uthes an idea of who will step into different roles, especially on attack.
Live Oak will open the season on Sept. 5, hosting Milpitas.
Tryouts start tonight from 5-7:30 p.m. at the Live Oak gym.