Sobrato opened its match against Leigh the same way it closed its match: Routing the Longhorns 25-10 on the back of strong serving and powerful attacks at the net.
In between was much more dramatic.
The Bulldogs pulled out a 3-1 Blossom Valley Athletic League win after a hard-fought tussle in the second and third sets 25-10, 25-23, 22-25, 25-10.
Sobrato (3-1, 2-1) rallied in Game 2 after falling behind by five late in the contest.
But thanks to an 11-4 scoring run, the Bulldogs pulled to within one win of a sweep.
Game 3 started out the same as the previous as both sides grabbed a lead only to see it disappear within four serves. But Sobrato fell victim to seven service errors for the game.
It allowed Leigh to hang around and eventually going on a 6-1 run that forced a fourth game. It was a game Sobrato wasn’t going to allow itself to lose.
“We were mad. We were mad at ourselves and we were mad at the outcome of the third game because we thought we should have taken it in three,” said Sobrato coach Nicole Simoneau. “But we had a talk and everybody came together, (and said) ‘You know we need to talk more, we need to move faster … and we needed to play this game like we played the first one.’ They came out mad, but they came out (strong).”
In the fourth set, Sobrato fell behind 6-7, but that was as close as Leigh came.
Behind the serving of Natalie Delman, the Bulldogs went on a 10-0 scoring run to pull ahead for good.
Delman served two of Sobrato’s 21 aces for the match in that stretch.
The Bulldogs closed the game with Samantha Nydam smashing home three of her match-leading 17 kills.
Jordan Westall joined in with a kill and a pair of aces as she served the match’s final four points.
Leading them all was the setter Miranda Werts who had eight aces with a kill as she helped set up the offense that also saw Casey Hendricks deliver 12 kills.
Werts led the Bulldogs on a 14-1 scoring run in Game 1. She served 11 consecutive service points, including five aces.
